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PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL AND CROWLAND
=How to get there.=--Train from King's Cross. Great Northern Rly.
=Nearest Station.=--Peterborough.
=Distance from London.=--76-1/2 miles.
=Average Time.=--Varies between 1-1/4 to 2-1/4 hours.
1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=--Single 11s. 3d. ... 6s. 4d.
Return 22s. 6d. ... 12s. 8d.
=Accommodation Obtainable.=--"Great Northern Railway Company's
Hotel," "Golden Lion Hotel," "Angel Hotel," "Grand Hotel,"
etc., at Peterborough.
=Alternative Route.=--Train from Liverpool Street, _via_ Ely. Great
Eastern Railway.
Nine miles north of Peterborough the ruins of Crowland Abbey arise out
of the flat fen country like a lighthouse out of the sea. With only the
nave and north aisle standing, it breathes the very spirit of romance
even in its decay. It is easy to picture the time when four streams
surrounded the monastery and church and formed an island in the fens,
and to recall how Hereward the Wake demanded entrance to the abbey to
see Torfrida, and was refused admittance by the Abbot Ulfketyl. In those
days two rivers met in the High Street of the little town that grew
round St. Guthlac's Monastery. Now the country is drained, Crowland is a
decayed little town with many thatched roofs, situated in an
agricultural district; the island exists no longer, and the old
triangular bridge rises over the dry Square at a place where three roads
meet. This bridge is older and more peculiar than any bridge in Europe
that is not of Roman origin.
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