Excerpt from Over the Hills to Broadway

They who have read the "Heart of Merrie England" will scarcely need to be told in what part of England to look for the places named in the following pages. The villages lie near the borderland of Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, and if the reader will take his map and find Stratford-upon-Avon, he will see Shipston-on-Stour lying south ten miles, a little to the east, and Evesham more to the west of the same point of the compass. South of a line drawn between the last two towns are the places hereinafter referred to. My gossip will be better enjoyed if the country travelled over be thus ascertained.

The August spoken of was that of 1892, and most of this account was written at or very near the time - all of it within the region traversed. I have made little revision of my original sketches. They were written in pencil, and mostly as they were written they went to the printer. Possibly, as a result of this, my readers will find little to appreciate except the freshness of the work. I have taken for granted that whoever took the trouble to run over this booklet would be my friend, with whom I might sit in my study or, if I had a garden, under my own ivy, and at my will either laugh or talk seriously. Such an one would have kindly feeling enough not to misunderstand me.

The illustrations, made expressly for this article, are taken from photographs secured by me while at Broadway.

I have to thank the proprietors of The American Church Sunday School Magazine for their kind permission to reprint from their journal these pages. Should this reprint prove acceptable further articles of a similar nature will find their way into the magazine and further reprints will be made.

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