was not such an easy matter when my mother was a child, and people did not expect to take the yearly holiday which is now considered a necessity. Places which now can be reached in a few hours’ time were then quite a long journey, and one had to travel either by post-chaise or stagecoach, which was pleasant for the outside passengers on a fine summer day, but anything but comfortable if the weather was cold or wet. It was very cheerful to hear the guard sounding his horn. For those who could not afford these conveyances there was the waggon—a very slow mode of travelling, this. It was a huge, clumsy-looking vehicle, drawn by four horses, the waggoner walking by the side and occasionally sitting on the shafts for some distance; at night carrying a horn lanthorn. These waggons were used for moving goods from place to place, and were very roomy. I knew a lady who, when she was a child, travelled in this way, under the care of a maid, from Lincolnshire to Tottenham. My earliest recollection of travelling is of going to the sea-side in a post-chaise; two horses were sent on the day before we started. We went either to Margate or Worthing, and left home at four o’clock in the morning. We travelled all day, changing horses halfway, arriving at our destination that evening. For those who liked the water there was a boat called “The Margate Hoy.” Sometimes we varied our holiday and took apartments at a farmhouse at Finchley, which was then beautiful country. On those occasions we went in my father’s phÆton. It was a very pretty drive all the way from Tottenham.

My mother remembered a public conveyance called a Shillibeer; this took its name from the inventor. Later on this was transformed into the Omnibus, and there was a number of these conveyances on the road, running to London and back every hour, the terminus being the “Flower Pot,” Bishopsgate-street. Occasionally one was confronted with the alternative of either walking home or waiting an hour. For instance, when the May meetings were held, to which the “Friends” flocked in large numbers, there was keen competition for a seat; no woman would have thought of going outside. I remember once seeing a respectable-looking country woman, taking her midday meal in the omnibus on her road to London. She evidently thought she was making a long journey, for opening her basket she placed a small cloth on her knees; she then produced a packet of bread and butter, a little parcel of salt, and, putting an egg in a cup, calmly ate her lunch. On another occasion a well-known rather eccentric character, having purchased some peas, shelled them in the omnibus to save time on his return home.

Tottenham lost its rural character when the railroads were made. The first of these was the Great Eastern main line, the Hale and Park Stations being then opened. Park Station being some distance from the main road Mr. Hall started a service of omnibusses from “The Horse and Groom” at Edmonton to this station. The next was the Midland, and lastly the Great Eastern suburban line to Enfield. When this was started the terminus was Bishopsgate-street.

Omnibusses were succeeded by horse trams, these again by steam trams, having a particularly clumsy appearance, and in a short time horse trams re-appeared, only to be again altered to electric trams.

It may not be generally known that once every year there used to be an official perambulation of the parish; this was called “beating the bounds,” and was regarded as an important occasion to mark the boundaries of the parish. Of course nothing was allowed to be an obstacle; where necessary the beaters went through hedges and ditches, and even through ponds, and at various places one of the boys who accompanied the procession was well bumped against a wall to impress the boundary on his mind, so that in after years he could testify from personal knowledge if any doubt arose.

The first local paper in Tottenham was called “Paul Pry”; it was so personal in its remarks, and so much mischief was made by it, that its life was a brief one. On the outside was the illustration of a man, with an umbrella under his arm, and the words, “I have just stepped in; I hope I don’t intrude.”

The “Weekly Herald” was started in 1861. It had a lot of subsidiary titles, besides that of the North Middlesex Advertiser which it still bears, but they have since been discarded. It was started by Mr. E. Cowing under the management of Mr. Crusha, who took it over in July, 1864.

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Tottenham: Crusha & Son, Typ., 821, High Road.