'Too much freedom,' said Mrs. Dallas. 'I believe it is good to have a king over a country.'
'Well, go on from Charing Cross, won't you,' said Miss Frere. 'I am interested. I never studied a map of London before. I am not sure I ever saw one.'
'I do not know which way to go,' said Pitt. 'Every step brings us to new associations; every street opens up a chapter of history. Here is Northumberland House; a grand old building, full of its records. Howards and Percys and Seymours have owned it and built it; and there General Monk planned the bringing back of the Stuarts. Going along the Strand, every step is full of interest. Just here used to be the palace of Sir Nicholas Baron and his son; then James the First's favourite, the Duke of Buckingham, lived in it; and the beautiful water-gate is yet standing which Inigo Jones built for him. All the Strand was full of palaces which have passed away, leaving behind the names of their owners in the streets which remain or have been built since. Here Sir Walter Raleigh lived; here the Dudleys had their abode, and Lady Jane Grey was married; here was the house of Lord Burleigh. But let us go on to the church of St. Mary-le-Strand. Here once stood a great Maypole, round which there used to be merry doings. The Puritans took that down too, mother.'
'What for?'
'They held it to be in some sort a relic of heathen manners. Then under
Charles II. it was set up again. And here, once, four thousand children
were gathered and sang a hymn, on some public occasion of triumph in
Queen Anne's reign.'
'It is not there now?'
'Oh, no! It was given to Sir Isaac Newton, and made to subserve the uses of a telescope.'
'How do you know all these things, Mr. Pitt.'
'Every London antiquary knows them, I suppose. And I told you, I have an old uncle who is a great antiquary; London is his particular hobby.'
'He must have had an apt scholar, though.'