=How to get there.=—Train from King’s
Cross. Great Northern Rly. =Nearest Station.=—Peterborough.
=Distance from London.=—76-1/2 miles. =Average
Time.=—Varies between 1-1/4 to 2-1/4 hours.
1st
2nd 3rd
=Fares.=—Single 11s. 3d. ... 6s.
4d.
Return
22s. 6d. ... 12s. 8d.
=Accommodation Obtainable.=—“Great
Northern Railway Company’s
Hotel,” “Golden Lion Hotel,”
“Angel Hotel,” “Grand Hotel,”
etc., at Peterborough.
=Alternative Route.=—Train from Liverpool
Street, via Ely. Great
Eastern Railway.
Nine miles north of Peterborough the ruins of Crowland
Abbey arise out of the flat fen country like a lighthouse
out of the sea. With only the nave and north
aisle standing, it breathes the very spirit of romance
even in its decay. It is easy to picture the time
when four streams surrounded the monastery and church
and formed an island in the fens, and to recall how
Hereward the Wake demanded entrance to the abbey to
see Torfrida, and was refused admittance by the Abbot
Ulfketyl. In those days two rivers met in the
High Street of the little town that grew round St.
Guthlac’s Monastery. Now the country is
drained, Crowland is a decayed little town with many
thatched roofs, situated in an agricultural district;
the island exists no longer, and the old triangular
bridge rises over the dry Square at a place where three
roads meet. This bridge is older and more peculiar
than any bridge in Europe that is not of Roman origin.
It is believed to have been built in 870, and consists
of three pointed arches rising steeply in the centre
to permit the rush of water in flood times. It
is too steep to admit of its use by any sort of vehicle,
and one ascends by steps to the top. At the end
of one portion of the bridge there is a stone image
of a Saxon king—possibly Ethelbert—with
a loaf in one hand.
In the time of Ethelbald, King of Mercians, a young
noble named Guthlac, weary of life’s rough way,
sought peace in the ascetic life. He drifted
in a boat to Crowland Isle, and there lived a hermit’s
life till his death in 817. On the spot where
he died Ethelbald founded and endowed a monastery
on the island, and it flourished exceedingly.
The larger part of the conventual church is now destroyed,
but the north aisle is used as the Parish Church of
Crowland.
[Illustration: Photochrom Co., Ltd.
CROWLAND ABBEY.
The building rises above the little thatched village,
which stands on slightly raised ground in the midst
of the fens.]
As was the case with Wells, Peterborough would have
had no existence but for its cathedral, which was
reared in the midst of the fertile fen country near
the slow-flowing river Ness. But the coming of
the railways has roused the country town, and in the
last fifty years its population has increased fivefold.
It is situated in a rich agricultural district, and
has a good trade in farm products. Its annual
wool and cattle markets are well known in the eastern
counties.
