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Jepson Field Book Transcriptions · Jepson Herbarium

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13_178
Leicester, Kenilworth
[September 20, 1905]

like lead in the hand. It would have been pleasant to stop a longer time in York. It has so many quaint street full of houses of the "Stratford-on-Avon" type. Then there is the old city wall - Roman, more or less of it: - one can walk nearly around the city on it. I didn't.
Leeds is a great manufacturing town - a commercial mart. The streets near the Midland station look like - well any East American city of the same size. Huge business blocks of modern type. Overhead trolley cars. Had an "exciting" time on the way to Leicester. Surely not necessary to change carriages, but they changed me three times. That is the great difficulty in getting about. No two or three of the railway servants on a platform tell one the same thing. English people tell the same story. It is sufficient to be in the right train, or at least not always. You must be in the right carriage as well. From Leicester to Kenilworth is a tedious slow journey by local trains with long stops. Now it is curious that the station master's office at Leicester gave me directions as to Kenilworth only after a slow and tedious reference to railway books. Think of it. Right in their district. Of course it is on an L & N.W. branch instead of Midland but they should be able to connect up their patrons at once!
13_179
[Leicester, Kenilworth]
September 20, 1905

Kenilworth, Coventry, Norwich - right in the heart of England and in a fertile and beautiful land. The towers at Kenilworth Castle give one a good view of the surrounding country - gently undulating country, finely wooded with groves and scattered oaks and oak-like elms, the oaks and elms particularly attractive. A fair country, a fair country - a fit land in which to entertain a queen! The ruins give one a fine idea of the way in which they builded in the olden days - the depth of the foundations, the thickness (5 to 7 ft. [feet]) of the walls. That "our forefathers builded better than we" seems always to have been true. The great pile on the S. [South] side of the inner court is braced with huge timbers to prevent its falling down. It was built by Leicester in 1500 something. While the Norman keep is the most perfectly preserved structure of the extensive ruins and disdains support. Some of the stones are perfectly preserved - almost as fresh as if chiseled but recently. Others are deeply worn - even the face stones of a wall - as if washed by the waves of the sea, worn and hollowed. The mullions of some of the windows are well-nigh intact. It is wonderful how they stick when walls have fallen. It was agreeable to note that they had fireplaces in those days - backed by thin-edged fire-brick. But the variety of dungeons, down in the walls of the castle is amazing! The stone passages and variety of connections is like exploring a fairy box.
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