We again went astray owing to the finger-posts being without names, but at length reached the Watling Street at cross-roads, where there was a very old public-house called “The Three Pots,” and here we turned to the right along the Street.  The road was very lonely, for there were very few houses on the Street itself, the villages being a mile or two away on either side, but we had not gone very far before we met a Church of England clergyman, who told us he had just returned from India, and that he would much have liked to form one of our company in the journey we were taking.  He was sorry he had not met us lower down the road so that he could have detained us a short time to listen to some of our tales of adventures, and he would have given us a glass of beer and some bread and cheese; which he altered to milk and eggs when we told him we did not drink beer.  We explained to him that we should never be able to complete our journey if we joined the company of the beer-drinkers at the many taverns we passed, and lingered at, on our way.  Our experience was that we were expected to tell tales, and the farther we travelled the more we should have had to tell.  He quite saw the force of our argument, and then he said:  “I presume you are not married,” and when we told him we were not, he said, “I thought not, as you would never have been allowed to engage in so long a journey,” and added, “I am just about to be married myself.”  We told him we were sorry he was about to lose his liberty, and, wishing him much happiness, and again thanking him for his proffered hospitality, we resumed our march.

[Illustration:  HIGH CROSS, THE CENTRE OF ENGLAND.]

In passing through country villages we often met the local clergyman or doctor, of whom we invariably inquired concerning any objects of interest to be seen.  It was marvellous how many of them expressed a wish to imitate our example.  This, however, was only on fine days, for we seldom met those gentlemen when the weather was bad, and we wondered whether, if we had, they would still have expressed a wish to form one of our company!  Fine weather prevailed that day, and we soon arrived at the High Cross which marked the Roman centre of England.  It was at this point that their most celebrated roads, the Fosse Way and the Watling Street, crossed each other, running, we supposed, from north-east to south-west and from north-west to south-east, to the extreme ends of the kingdom in each direction.  The Cross in the time of the Romans was made of wood, being replaced or renewed in successive generations, until in the middle of the seventeenth century it was utilised as a finger-post, consisting of a long pole with four arms, to direct the way from “London to West Chester,” and from “York to Bristol.”  In 1712 an ornamental stone cross was erected on the same spot by a number of gentlemen headed by Basil, the fourth Earl of Denbigh, who had large estates in that neighbourhood.  The tableland on which it stood