Page:Letters from Abroad to Kindred at Home (Volume 1).djvu/40

Rh the beautiful temple, who were, in their time, the teachers of religion, the preservers of learning, the fountains of charity. It would not be easy to indulge this fancy, for, besides the guides that infested us, and a succession of hunters after the picturesque, R. detected some fellows stealing jackdaws' nests; and Captain H. not only threatened them with the strong arm of the law, but, to secure these holy precincts from such marauders, be was at the pains to lodge information against them with the proper authority.

On our return from Netley we ascertained that the —— family are at their place, a short drive from Southampton. You know how much reason we have to wish to avail ourselves of our letters to them, or, rather, you do not know how much, nor did we till we had seen them. So we sent off oar letters, and went to Winchester with the Halls by the railroad. It was but the second day since this section of the road was opened, and it was lined with staring people, hurraing and clapping hands. The chief object of the excursion to us was the Cathedral, which is the larger in England. A part of it is of the Saxon order, and dates from the seventh century. What think you of our New-World eyes seeing the sarcophagi containing the bones of the old Saxon kings? the Ethelreds and Ethelwolfs, and of Canute the Dane; the tombs of William Rufus, and of William of Wickham; the chair in which bloody Mary sat at her nuptial ceremony, besides unnumbered monuments and