to London from Newmarket.
Charles, though restored to the throne, was giving great dissatisfaction
to many in the country. Though professedly a Protestant, it was well
known that his leanings were towards Roman Catholicism, and his brother
the Duke of York was an avowed Catholic. Then it was discovered that
Charles had been receiving a pension from Louis XIV. of France, on
condition that this country did not go to war with the French, an
arrangement which was most humiliating to the English people. The nation
was thoroughly alarmed, and at the next meeting of Parliament the
Commons brought in a bill to exclude the Duke of York from ever coming
to the throne. Many of the leading Whigs, including Lord William
Russell, Algernon Sidney, and the Earl of Essex, formed a confederacy.
It has never been proved that they ever meant the country to rise
against the king, but unfortunately, just at the same time, some bolder
and fiercer spirits of the Whig party determined to kill both Charles
and James at the lonely Rye House belonging to Rumbolt. The plot failed
from the fact that the house which the king occupied at Newmarket
accidentally caught fire, and Charles was obliged to leave Newmarket a
week sooner than was expected. This conspiracy as well as the meetings
of the Whig party were betrayed to the king's ministers. Russell was
beheaded in 1683, and Sidney shared the same fate.

[Illustration: RYE HOUSE.

The scene of the famous Rye House Plot in 1683.]

HATFIELD HOUSE, HERTS

=How to get there.=--From King's Cross. Great Northern Railway.
=Nearest Station.=--Hatfield.
=Distance from London.=--17-3/4 miles.
=Average Time.=--35 minutes.

1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=--Single 2s. 6d. ... 1s. 5-1/2d.
Return 5s. 0d. ... 2s. 11d.

=Accommodation Obtainable.=--"Red Lion Hotel," etc.

Permission to see the interior of Hatfield House can be obtained when
the Marquess of Salisbury is not in residence.

After the Norman Conquest Hatfield, the _Haethfield_ of the Saxons,
became the property of the bishops of Ely, and was known as Bishops
Hatfield, as indeed it is marked on many maps. There was here a
magnificent palace, which at the Reformation became the property of
Henry VIII., and was afterwards given to the Cecils by James I., who
received Theobalds in exchange.

The town of Hatfield is a quaint, straggling place, with narrow streets
and many antique houses. A steep decliv