3. Name the highest hill in the hilly district in the north-west of Leicestershire.

4. Name five towns on the Ashby-de-la-Zouch coal-field

5. Name three considerable towns in South Leicestershire.

6. What interesting town stands on the Swift, which is a tributary of the Avon ?

7. Near what town was a battle fought in 1485?

8. What counties surround Leicestershire?

THE COUNTIES OF HERTFORD AND

BEDFORD.
I..

HERTFORD and Bedford are both farming counties, where there is scarcely a bit of waste land anywhere, excepting the round tops of the Chilterns, which divide the two shires. These hills form part of one of the long chalk ranges that start from Salisbury Plain. Ploughed fields and woods climb the slopes, and the short turf of the hill sides makes capital mutton, like that bred upon the Downs.

Both counties have many woods and many parks, with lordly mansions "where the wealthy nobles live." Though there are no hills of any height except the Chilterns, Hertford and Bedford cannot be called flat shires; for the ground swells and sinks with a pleasant rise and fall, and there are often clumps of trees upon the uplands.

Many cows are to be seen grazing, chiefly in Bedfordshire where butter is made for the London market. There are fine pasture-fields in the north of this shire, the soil being rather wet, like that of the fen counties round it on either side. This is the case especially along the banks of the Great Ouse, which makes endless loops and turns in its course. Famous onions and cucumbers are grown in the south-west of this county, where the sandy soil suits these vegetables. Hertford is, on the whole, a prettier county than Bedfordshire, with more woods and parks and hills. Besides the Chilterns on

the north-west and west, it has low hills along the Middlesex border. It is also a fruit-growing county, with large cherry and apple orchards, where fruit is grown for Covent Garden Market. Indeed, Herts is a friendly neighbour-county to the great city of London, which it supplies not only with fruit, but with all kinds of table vegetables. Lettuces, green peas, and cauliflowers are raised in its large market-gardens. Flowers, also, are largely cultivated; and the roses of Herts take the first prizes in the London Shows.

Better than flowers and fruit, better than peas and potatoes, is the water of the New River to London. This water is collected in large reservoirs at Hornsey and Stoke Newington. At these places it is filtered to clear it from impurities, and then caused to flow into pipes, which carry it all over London. Where does it come from, this water with which so many London teakettles are filled? There are some springs of delightful water close by Ware (where John Gilpin's friend lived); Chadwell is the largest. To bring the fresh water from these springs to thirsty London was the thought of one Sir Hugh Myddelton, who lived some two hundred and fifty years ago. He had a channel dug, forty miles long, for the stream to flow in, and this was the New River-really new then, though it is old now in all but name.

Though there is much gardening done in Herts, both this county and Bedford are, for the most part, under the plough. Perhaps there is, for its size, more ploughed land in Bedford than in any other English county. Wheat, barley and oats, potatoes and turnips, peas and beans are largely grown. Wheat is the chief crop, and the white wheat straw of these counties is put to an important use.

Throughout Herts and Bedford, and in parts of Essex and Suffolk, in which counties the wheat straw is of the right kind, the women and girls are at work in the cottages making straw plait, while the men are busy in the fields. Thirteen straws are generally plaited together, worked much in the same way as broad plaits of hair. It is easy work, which the

children learn to do.

The towns in Herts where straw plait is most largely made are the old town of Hitchin, Baldock, Royston, Tring, Hemel Hempstead, Watford, where paper also is made, and St. Albans. These are also the chief market-towns of the county.

The two best known straw-plaiting towns are in Bedford, these are Dunstable and Luton, both among the Chilterns. The kind of plait called "Dunstable" is much esteemed; at Luton "Tuscan plait is made.

Bedford, Biggleswade, Ampthill, and Leighton Buzzard, which has an old stone cross, are also strawplaiting towns. These are the market-towns of Bedfordshire, and in them, and indeed all over the county, another kind of cottage-work is carried on, the making of pillow-lace. This is but a poor trade since the invention of the Nottingham frame for lace-making.

II.

JOHN BUNYAN.

THERE are various places of interest in the county of Bedford. Near the market-town of Woburn is Woburn Abbey, an ancient abbey which has been converted into a very stately palace indeed, the seat of the Dukes