acquitted him on the bare supposition, that the man could not be at two
places so remote on one and the same day.

[9] Fenny, or Fen Stanton, not Stratford, must be here meant, as
the former is in the direct road from Cambridge to Huntingdon.

I need not remind your numerous readers that the roads in 1676 were in a
very different plight to those of 1831; at the former period it would
not have been possible for Tom Thumb to have trotted sixteen miles an
hour on any turnpike road in England. Even my friend, the respected
driver of the Old Union Cambridge Coach to London, can remember, in his
time, the coach being two days on the road, and occasionally being
indebted to farmers for the loan of horses to drag the coach wheels out
of their sloughy tracks.

J.S.W.


* * * * *


DIGNIFIED REPROOF.


Catherine Parthenay, niece of the celebrated Anna Parthenay, returned
this spirited reply to the importunities of Henry IV.--"Your majesty
must know, that although I am too humble to become your wife, I am at
the same time descended from too illustrious a family ever to become
your mistress."