PREFACE.
I TELL the Tale of the Road, with scraps of gossip and curious lore,
With a laugh, or a sigh, and a tear in the eye for the joys and sorrows of yore:
What were they like, those sorrows and joys, you ask, O Heir of the Ages:
Read, then, mark, learn, and perpend, an you will, from these gossipy pages.
Here, free o’er the shuddery heath, where the curlew calls shrill to his mate,
Wandered the Primitive Man, in his chilly and primitive state;
Unkempt and shaggy, reckless of razor, of comb, or of soap:
Hunted, lived, loved, and died, in untutored and primitive hope.
For what did he hope, that picturesque heathen, hunter of fur and of feather?
For a Better Land, with weapons to hand, much quarry, and fine hunting weather.
Now white runs the devious road, o’er the trackless space that he trod,
Who hunted the heath, and died, and yielded his primitive soul unto God.
Briton and conquering Roman, Iceni, Saxon, piratical Dane,
Have marched where he joyously ranged, and peopled this desolate plain.
Dynasties, peoples, and laws have waxed, ruled, and faded, and gone,
But still spreads his primitive home, sombre, unfertile, and lone.
Here toiled the wallowing coach, where the highway goes winding away:
Here the highwayman lurked in the shadow, impatiently waiting his prey:
There, where the turbulent river, unbridged, rolled fiercely in spate,
The wayfarer, seeking the deep-flooded ford, met a watery fate.
I can show you the suicide’s grave, where bracken and bryony twine,
By cross-roads on the heath, where the breath of the breeze is like wine;
And bees and butterflies flit in the sun, and life is joyous and sweet,
And takes no care for the tragedy there, where the suicide sleeps at your feet.
Dwellers in village and town, each contribute their tale to the store,
Peasants of valley and down, fishers by river and shore.
Thus I tell you the Tale of the Road, told with a laugh or a sigh;
Sought with a zest, told with a jest, wrought with a tear in the eye.
CHARLES G. HARPER.
Petersham,
Surrey,
February, 1904.
THE ROAD TO NEWMARKET, THETFORD,
NORWICH, AND CROMER.
| London (General Post Office) to— | MILES |
| Shoreditch Church | 1½ |
| Cambridge Heath | 2½ |
| Hackney Church | 3½ |
| Lower Clapton | 4 |
| Lea Bridge (Cross River Lea.) | 5½ |
| Whip’s Cross | 6¾ |
| Snaresbrook (“The Eagle”) | 8 |
| Woodford (St. Mary’s Church) | 9 |
| Woodford Green | 9¾ |
| Woodford Wells (“Horse and Well” Inn) | 10¼ |
| Buckhurst Hill (“Bald-faced Stag”) | 11 |
| Loughton | 13 |
| Wake Arms | 15 |
| Epping | 18 |
| Thornwood Common | 20¼ |
| Potter Street | 2½ |
| Harlow (Cross River Stort: Stort Navigation, Harlow Wharf.) | 24½ |
| Sawbridgeworth | 26¾ |
| Spelbrook | 28½ |
| Thorley Street (Cross River Stort.) | 29½ |
| Hockerill, Bishop Stortford | 30½ |
| Stansted Mountfitchet | 33½ |
| Ugley | 35½ |
| Quendon | 36½ |
| Newport (Cross Wicken Water.) | 39 |
| Uttlesford Bridge, Audley End (On right, Saffron Walden, 1½ mile; on left, ½ mile, Wendens Ambo.) | 40¼ |
| Littlebury | 42¼ |
| Little Chesterford (Cross River Cam.) | 43¾ |
| Great Chesterford | 44½ |
| Stump Cross | 45¼ |
| Pampisford Station, Bourn Bridge (Cross Bourn Stream, or Linton River.) | 48½ |
| Six Mile Bottom Level Crossing, Six Mile Bottom Station.) | 54½ |
| Devil’s Ditch | 58½ |
| Newmarket (Clock Tower) | 60½ |
| “Red Lodge” Inn (Cross River Kennett.) | 65½ |
| Barton Mills (Cross River Lark, Mildenhall, on left, 1 mile.) | 69¾ |
| Elveden | 77 |
| Thetford (Cross Rivers Little Ouse and Thet.) | 80¾ |
| Larling Level Crossing | 85¾ |
| Larlingford (Cross River Thet.) | 88¾ |
| Attleborough | 94¾ |
| Morley St. Peter Post Office | 97 |
| Wymondham | 100¾ |
| Hethersett | 104¼ |
| Cringleford (Cross River Yare.) | 106¾ |
| Eaton | 107¼ |
| Norwich (loop road) (Cross River Wensum.) | 109¾ |
| Upper Hellesdon | 110½ |
| Mile Cross | 111 |
| Horsham St. Faith | 114¼ |
| Newton St. Faith | 115½ |
| Stratton Strawless | 117½ |
| Hevingham | 118 |
| Marsham | 120 |
| Aylsham (loop road) (Cross River Bure.) | 121½ |
| Ingworth | 123½ |
| Erpingham | 125½ |
| Hanworth Corner | 126¾ |
| Roughton | 128½ |
| Crossdale Street | 131 |
| Cromer | 132 |
| To Thetford, through Bury St. Edmunds. | |
| Newmarket (Clock Tower) | 61¾ |
| Kentford (Cross River Kennett.) | 66 |
| Higham Station | 68½ |
| Saxham White Horse | 71½ |
| Risby | 73 |
| Bury St. Edmunds | 75½ |
| Fornham St. Martin | 77½ |
| Ingham | 79¾ |
| Seven Hills | 81¾ |
| Barnham | 85½ |
| Thetford | 87¾ |
List of Illustrations