Though the English are a naval rather than a military nation, their battlefield record is a particularly proud one. The English character in battle shows the stubborn, dogged traits of the people from whom the soldiers are drawn; and since in any British army there is always a great admixture of Irish and Scottish soldiers to give dash and _elan_, the net result usually proves to be an ideal fighting force. To turn to less serious things, the British Regular is a very decorative personage. It has cost a good deal of money to turn him out, and the military authorities insist that he should show that money's worth. This is partly from pride in the force, partly from a desire to encourage recruiting for the Army by the parading in the streets of these well-set-up, gorgeously uniformed men. The regiments kept in London barracks are "show" regiments, and a very fine note of pageantry they bring to the old grey city. The ceremony of changing the guard at the palaces draws a crowd of spectators daily; and he is an unlucky wight indeed who does not find often his glimpse of London park or road brightened suddenly by the passage of a troop of cavalry, plumes nodding, cuirasses gleaming, spirited horses pannading. The populace love the soldiers. Yet there is no abatement of the old English jealousy against encroachments by standing armies. The military power is kept strictly subservient to the civil power, as a hundred and one regulations and customs constantly remind. The civilian people are resolved that their defenders shall never become aggressors against their liberties. To the visitor from the European continent, where the soldier is supreme, the position of the military force in England seems strange, even undignified. But it is a jealously guarded survival of the days of old strifes, when there was real danger of a king using the army to destroy the liberties of the common people. There is little or no reason for the survival now; but the sentiment of it is good. With that I may well conclude these notes on England; for, after the green fields and the dear homes of England, the strongest trait of the country's character is the tender guardianship of old forms and symbols and customs. England does not lag behind in the work of present-day modern civilisation. But as she goes forward she takes the Past affectionately along with her. INDEX Alcuin, 47 Aldershot, 198 Ampthill Park, 36 Angles, 17 Anglo-Saxon, the, 15, 24 Anglo-Saxon victory, 18 Army, the, 187 Arnold, Matthew, 107, 131 Arthur, Prince, 129, 130 Arthurian legend, 19 Arts in England, the, 155 Avebury temple, 10 Balsham, Hugh de, 51 Bank Holiday, 80 Bath, 102, 110, 111, 136 Beau Nash, 111 Becket, Thomas à, 112, 129 Beverley, John of, 47 Bird-Cage Walk, 104 Boadicea, 110 Bodichon, Madame, 52 Bodleian Library, 55 Bourne End, 123 Boy Scouts, 88, 199 Bristol, 112 British climate, 9 British Empire, the, 2, 188, 189 British Mercantile Marine, 197