Waltham Cross has long been admired as an elegant specimen of Early English or Middle Pointed architecture. It is hexagonal in form, and consists of three handsome stages or storeys, each terminated by an embattled frieze, whilst the angles are respectively supported by a graduated buttress, ornamented with foliated finials. Within the panels of the lower storey are shields bearing the arms of England, Castile, and Leon and Poictou; whilst statues of Queen Eleanor occupy niches on the second storey. The Four Swans Inn. Each corner of the road that here debouches upon the main high road is occupied by an inn, that nearer London being the Falcon, and the other the Four Swans. Both are survivals of that period of prosperity when the coaches between London and Cambridge sped along the road. Whilst, however, the Falcon has been rebuilt in recent times—a work which made possible the widening of the roadway and the preservation of the Cross—the Four Swans retains very much of its old-time glory, and its sign is still stretched across the main street, forming an advertisement of such a conspicuous character as would not be admissible now-a-days. The interior of this inn possesses many of those interesting features which are generally attached to old coaching and posting houses, and in its oldest portion is a handsome Jacobean staircase. Its foundation, however, dates far beyond even coaching days, for the house originally formed part of the possessions of the Abbey, of which it was a guest house, whilst the Abbot’s manorial court was held here. The oldest part of the house is that to the left of the gateway on entering, and it is highly probable that the suite of rooms in which the tenants assembled—described by Dr. Stukeley in 1752 as being “where the chimneys are”—were contained in this wing, whilst the older portion of the spacious apartment over the gateway, now used as a masonic hall, formed the abbot’s court-room. At other times the place was used for the lodgement of pilgrims and similar purposes. The sign of the Four Swans, the only one that I have met with, is derived from the arms of Earl Harold, whose shield had emblazoned upon it a cross with four swans. [Picture: The Eleanor Cross, showing detail of carving. From “Picturesque Hertfordshire.” Drawn by Duncan Moul] [Picture: Theobalds, formerly the favourite residence of King James I.] Theobalds.