How far had we travelled that day? An estimate is given in the practical observations earlier, but in truth distance really hardly counts within limits which grow wider every year, when one is motoring for pleasure. The essential things were that we took breakfast at a reasonable time and at leisure in Felixstowe, went by characteristic cross-country routes to Woodbridge and to Ipswich, strolled through Ipswich and shopped and lingered over luncheon, took tea at ease in Great Dunmow, explored many pleasant byways between it and London, and were back in London in plenty of time to dine and to go to a first night at the theatre, and not in the least too tired to do both with enjoyment. That is the new kind of pleasure which the motor-car has rendered possible, and it is a very real and genuine one. CHAPTER VII LATE SUMMER. COLCHESTER AND EASTWARDS Modern motoring and lack of sensational events--Colchester and district seen during Military manoeuvres--Farcical operations and abundant leisure--Study of Colchester--Interesting back streets--The Roman walls--Cæsar comes, sees, conquers, and departs--King Cunobelin--Claudius at Colchester--Was his victory a "put up thing"?--The Roman colony--Boadicea--The building of the walls--Abundant Roman remains--Legend of King Cole--Not necessarily all false--A playful theory--Was the Empress Helena a Colchester inn-keeper's daughter?--The Civil War--Siege of Colchester--Ireton's cruel revenge--Grief of Charles I--Concerning oysters--Colchester to Clacton-on-Sea--Sharp hillocks and shady elms--Chasing a balloon--Wivenhoe to Clacton--A wonderful society seen from a veranda--Great Holland--Walton-le-Soken, meaning of--St. Osyth--Between estuaries of Colne and Stour--Some hills and many windings--A Lanchester as hill-climber--Ardleigh and seed grounds--A dialogue--Manningtree--"Manningtree Ox" and Thomas Tusser--Matthew Hopkins the witchfinder--East Bergholt--Constable's birthplace--His struggles and career--To Dovercourt and Harwich--Fascinations of seaports--Old-time stories of Harwich Regatta--Landguard Fort--Lord Avebury on coast erosion and accretion--Site of Yarmouth--Back to Colchester.