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CHAPTER XIV.
Old Coaching Days.--Stage Wagons and Stage Coaches

142
CHAPTER XV.
New Wine and Old Bottles.--A Parochial Revolution.--The Old Poor-House and the New "Bastille" 155
CHAPTER XVI.
When the Policeman Came.--When the Railway Came.--Curious and Memorable Events 174
CHAPTER XVII.
Then and Now.--Conclusion 191

ERRATA—Page 16, lines 9 and 29, for Dr. Monsey, read Dr. Mowse.

[Transcriber's note: These changes have been incorporated into this e-book.]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

	PAGE
Portrait of King George III.	Frontispiece
Old Stage Wagon, A.D. 1800	8
The "Fox and Hounds," Barley, Herts.	17
Lady in Reign of George III.	21
Old Jockey House—King James' Stables	22
Staircase into Royston Cave	36
Illustration of a portion of the Interior of Royston Cave	37
Dogberry "On Duty"	52
Napoleon Buonaparte	63
Tinder-Box, Flint, Steel, and Matches	74
A Lady of the Period	76
The Old Parish Stocks at Meldreth	87
Reading the News	106
The Hunt Breakfast	131
Third-Class to London	144
A Cambridge Election Party	147
Triumphal Arch at Buntingford	187
Triumphal Arch at Royston	188
Wimpole Mansion	189

FRAGMENTS OF TWO CENTURIES.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.—"THE GOOD OLD TIMES."

The Jubilee Monarch, King George III., and his last name-sake, had succeeded so much that was unsettled in the previous hundred years, that the last half of the 18th Century was a period almost of comparative quiet in home affairs. Abroad were stirring events in abundance in which England played its part, for the century gives, at a rough calculation, 56 years of war to 44 years of peace, while the reign of George III. had 37 years of war and 23 years of peace—the longest period of peace being 10 years,