Miles. Miles.
BLISWORTH. 34.5 OUNDLE.
4.75 NORTHAMPTON. 40.75 WANSFORD.
15.75 WELLINGBOROUGH. STAMFORD by Coach.
20 HIGHAM FERRERS. 47.25 PETERBOROUGH.
26 THRAPSTON.
From Blisworth branches out the line to Peterborough, with sixteen stations,
of which we name above the more important.
The route presents a constant succession of beautiful and truly English rural
scenery, of rich lowland pastures, watered by the winding rivers, and bounded
by hills, on which, like sentinels, a row of ancient church towers stand.
The first station is Northampton.
* * * * *
NORTHAMPTON, on a hill on the banks of the river Nene, is a remarkably
pleasant town, with several fine old buildings, an ancient church, an open
market square, neat clean streets, and suburbs of pretty villas, overlooking,
from the hill top, fat green meadows, flooded in winter. Shoemaking on a
wholesale scale, is the principal occupation of the inhabitants. For strong
shoes Northampton can compete in any foreign market, and a good many light
articles, cut after French patterns, have been successfully made since the
trade was thrown open by Peel's tariff. There are several factories, in
which large numbers of young persons are employed, but the majority work by
the piece at home for the master manufacturers.
Northampton is also great in the fairs and markets of a rich agricultural
district, and rejoices over races twice a year, in which the facilities of
the railroad have rendered some compensation to the inn-keepers for the loss
of the coaching trade. Northampton was originally intended to be a main
station of the railway between London and Birmingham. The inhabitants were
silly enough to resist the bestowal of this benefit upon them, and
unfortunate enough to be successful in their resistance. In after years,
when experience had rendered fools wise, they were glad to obtain the present
branch through to Peterborough; but the injury of the ill-judged opposition
can never be cured.
The church of All Saints, in the centre of the town, has an ancient embattled
tower which escaped the great fire of 1675. St. Peter's, near the West
Bridge, a remarkably curious specimen of enriched Norman; St. Sepulchre's, a
round church of the twelfth century, all deserve enumeration. There are also
two hospitals, the only remains of many religious houses which existed before
the Reformation. St. John's consists of a chapel and a large hall, with
apartments for inferior poor persons; St. Thomas's is for twenty poor alms-
women. No vestiges, beyond the earthworks, remain of the castle built by
Simon de St. Liz, who was created Earl of Northampton by William the
Conqueror. Northampton was a royal residence during the reigns of Richard
I., John, and Henry III.; a battlefield during the wars of the Barons and the
wars of the Roses; but the ancient character of the town was almost entirely
destroyed by the great fire of 1675,--not without benefit to the health,
though at the expense of the picturesqueness of this ancient borough.
Northampton is important as the capital town of one of our finest grazing and
hunting counties, where soil and climate are both favourable to the farmer.
Large numbers of the Scotch, Welch, and Herefords sold in Smithfield, are fed
in the yards and finished in the pastures of Northamptonshire.
The present Earl of Spencer keeps up, on a limited scale, the herd of short-
horns which were so celebrated during the lifetime of his brother, better
known as Lord Althorpe,--at his seat of Althorpe, six miles from the town, and
also carries on a little fancy farming. The late Earl of Spencer was much
more successful as a breeder than as a farmer; indeed, it may be questioned
whether the prejudices of that amiable and excellent man in favour of pasture
land, did not exercise an injurious influence over the proceedings of the
Royal Agricultural Association.
Northampton returns two members to Parliament, and has a mayor and
corporation.
The railway route from Northampton to Peterborough presents a series of
pleasant views on either side,--so pleasant that he who has leisure should
walk, or ride on horseback, along the line of Saxon villages, visit the
series of curious churches at Wellingborough, Higham Ferrers, with its
collegiate church and almshouse, Thrapston and Oundle, and other stations.
Within two miles of Thrapston is Drayton House, Lowick, the seat of the
Sackville family, which retains many of the features of an ancient castle,
and has a gallery of paintings by the old masters. The church of Lowick
contains several monuments, brasses, and windows of stained glass. Near
Oundle is to be found the earthwork of Fotheringay Castle, where Mary Queen
of Scots was confined, tried, and executed. The castle itself was levelled
to the ground by order of her son, James I. On leaving Oundle we pass a
station appurtenant to Wansford in England, of which we shall say a word
presently.
Here we may take coach across to Stamford in Lincolnshire (see Stamford),
unless we prefer the rail from Peterborough. There is a point somewhere
hereabouts where the three counties of Northampton, Lincoln, and Huntingdon
all meet.
* * * * *
WANSFORD IN ENGLAND.--If about to investigate the antiquities of Stamford or
Peterborough, the traveller will do well to stop at Wansford for the sake of
one of the best inns in Europe, well known under the sign of "The Haycock at
Wansford in England." This sign represents a man stretched floating on a
haycock, apparently in conversation with parties on a bridge. It is intended
to illustrate the legend of Drunken Barnaby, who, travelling during the time
of the plague from London northward, tasting and criticising the ale on the
road, drank so much of the Northamptonshire brewst that he fell asleep on a
haycock, in one of the flat meadows. In the night time, as is often the case
in this part of the country, a sudden flood arose, and our toper awaked to
find himself floating on a great tide of water, which at length brought him
to a bridge, upon which, hailing the passengers, he asked, "Where am I?" in
full expectation of having floated to France or Spain; whereupon they
answered, "at Wansford." "What!" he exclaimed in ecstacy, "Wansford in
England!" and landing, drank the ale and gave a new name to the inn of this
village between three counties. The inn (which belongs to the Duke of
Bedford) affords a sort of accommodation which the rapid travelling and short
halts of railways have almost abolished. But an easy rent, a large farm, and
a trade in selling and hiring hunters, enables the landlord to provide as
comfortably for his guests, as when, in old posting days, five dukes made the
Haycock their night halt at one time. On entering the well carpeted coffee-
room, with its ample screen, blazing fire, and plentiful allowance of easy
chairs, while a well appointed tempting dinner is rapidly and silently laid
on the spotless table-cloth,--the tired sportsman or traveller will be
inclined to fancy that he is visitor to some wealthy squire rather than the
guest of an innkeeper. When we add that the bed-rooms match the sitting-
rooms, that the charges are moderate, that the Pytchley, Earl Fitzwilliam's,
and the Duke of Rutland's hounds (the Beevor), meet within an easy distance;
that the county abounds in antiquities, show-houses like Burleigh, that
pleasant woodland rides are within a circle of ten miles, that good pike-
fishing is to be had nearly all the year round, while in retirement Wansford
is complete; we have said enough to show that it is well worth the notice of
a large class of travellers,--from young couples on their first day's journey,
to old gentlemen travelling north and needing quiet and a bottle of old port.
The last station, Peterborough, presents an instance of a city without
population, without manufactures, without trade, without a good inn, or even
a copy of the Times, except at the railway station; a city which would have
gone on slumbering to the present hour without a go-a-head principle of any
kind, and which has nevertheless, by the accident of situation, had railway
greatness thrust upon it in a most extraordinary manner.
* * * * *
PETERBOROUGH is one of the centres from which radiate three lines to London,
viz., by the Northampton route, on which we have travelled; by the direct
line, through Herts, of the Great Northern; and by the Eastern Counties, with
all its Norfolk communications. From Peterborough also proceeds an arm of
the Midland Counties, through Stamford, Oldham, and Melton Mowbray, and the
best Leicestershire grass country, to Leicester or to Nottingham,--while the
Great Northern, dividing, embraces the whole of Lincolnshire and makes way to
Hull, by the Humber ferries, on the one hand, and to York on the other. There
is, therefore, the best of consolation on being landed in this dull
inhospitable city, that it is the easiest possible thing to leave it.
Peterborough dates from the revival of Christianity among the Saxons;
destroyed by the Danes A.D. 870, rebuilt by Edgar in 970, it was attacked and
plundered by Saxon insurgents from the fens under Hereward the Wake, in the
time of William the Conqueror. At the dissolution of religious houses under
Henry VIII., Peterborough was one of the most magnificent abbeys, and, having
been selected as the seat of one of the new bishoprics, the buildings were
preserved entire. In the civil wars, the Lady Chapel and several conventual
buildings were pulled down and the materials sold. At present the cathedral
is a regular cruciform structure of Norman character, remarkable for the
solidity of its construction.
It was commenced 1117, by John de Saiz, a Norman. The chancel was finished,
A.D. 1140, by Abbot Martin de Vecti. The great transept and a portion of the
central tower were built by Abbot William de Vaudeville, A.D. 1160 to 1175,
and the nave by Abbot Benedict 1177-1193. The fitting up of the choir is of
woodwork richly carved. The greater number of the monuments, shrines, and
chantry chapels, were destroyed by the Parliamentary troops. Two queens lie
buried here, Catherine of Aragon and Mary of Scotland, without elegy or
epitaph, monument or tombstone.
The Cathedral viewed, nothing remains to detain the traveller in this
peculiarly stupid city. Within a pleasant ride of five miles lies Milton
House, the seat of Earl Fitzwilliam.
* * * * *
STAMFORD.--Although Stamford is not upon this line of railway, travellers
passing near should not fail to visit so ancient and interesting a town. Few
English boroughs can trace back more distinctly their antiquity. Six
churches still remain of the fifteen which, beside many conventual buildings,
formerly adorned it. For Stamford was one of the towns which, had not the
Reformation intervened, would have been swallowed up by the ever hungry
ecclesiastical maw. Stamford awakens many historic recollections. It has a
place in Domesday Book, being there styled Stanford: King Stephen had an
interview there with Ranulph, Earl of Chester. In 1190, the Jews of Stamford
were plundered and slain by the recruits proceeding to the crusades; and, ten
years afterwards, when Edward I. expelled the Jews from England, "their
synagogue and noble library at Stamford were profaned and sold." Many of the
books were purchased by Gregory of Huntingdon, a monk of Ramsey Abbey, a
diligent student of ancient languages; and thus the result of much learning,
collected in Spain and Italy, and handed down from the times when the Jews
and Arabs almost alone cultivated literature as well as commerce, was sown in
England, the last of European kingdoms to become distinguished in letters.
Stamford was the refuge of Oxford students on the occasion of disturbances in
1333. It was taken by the Lancastrian army of the North under Queen Margaret
in 1461, and given up to plunder; and, in 1462, when thirty thousand
Lincolnshire men marched, under the command of Sir Robert Wells, against
Edward IV., under the walls of Stamford they were defeated, and, flying, left
their coats behind. But the latest battles of Stamford have been between
Whig and Tory, and even these have ceased.
The houses and public buildings are all built of a rich cream-coloured stone,
which gives an air of cleanliness and even distinction, which is an immense
advantage. There are two fine hotels. The borough returns two members, both
nominated by the Marquis of Exeter, who owns a large proportion of the vote-
giving houses. The bull-running has been abolished here, as also at Tutbury,
in Staffordshire; but those who are curious to see the ceremony may have
occasional opportunities in the neighbourhood of Smithfield market, where it
is performed under the especial patronage of the aldermen of the city of
London.