bit of crumbling wall left of the once imposing stronghold, also the small remains of old St. Stephen's gate: then we returned to our hotel, our good-natured antiquarian friend still keeping us company.
Reaching the bridge that crosses the Welland river, which structure has taken the place of the "stone-ford," we had pointed out to us a line marked upon it with an inscription, showing the height of the water at the spot during the memorable flood of 15th July 1880, when the swollen river rose above the arches of the bridge. On that occasion, we learnt, our inn was flooded, the water reaching even to the top of the billiard-table. During a former great flood in the seventeenth century, we were told, the horses in the "George" stables were actually drowned at their stalls.
At our inn we reluctantly parted company with our entertaining companion, not, however, before we had thanked him for his kindness to us as strangers. It is these pleasant chance acquaintances the wanderer so frequently makes that add a wonderful zest to the pleasures of travel.
The sign of the "George" inn, as of old, still hangs from the centre of a beam that stretches right across the roadway; it is said that there are only some twenty-five or twenty-seven signs remaining in England so arranged. At the village of Barley in Herts, on the highway from London to Cambridge, the "Fox and Hounds" possesses one of these signs. Here may be seen figures of huntsmen, hounds, and fox, represented as crossing the
