Our country roads usually have fences alongside, but in England the country roads usually have hedges. Sometimes the hedges are like those that grew up round Sleeping Beauty’s castle, so thick and so high that you cannot see through them or over them, and the houses behind them are hidden, all except perhaps the roof. Sometimes the roofs are quite different from ours—made of piles of straw, which are called “thatch.” You would hardly think thatch roofs would keep the rain out, but they do; and you would think they would burn up easily, but they don’t. The houses themselves are seldom built of wood, because there is very little wood in England to build them of. Almost all of them are built of stone which comes out of the ground, or brick made out of the ground. In America there is a great deal of wood, but in England there is little wood, for there are very few forests, hardly any big ones, and they are usually kept like a park. The country is so old the trees have nearly all been cut down. The trees that are left are so valuable that people do not often cut them down to use them for building houses. In America a wood house is cheaper than a stone or brick house. In England a stone or brick house is cheaper than one made of wood.

Among the sights which people go to see in England are the churches and cathedrals. Few churches in America are a hundred years old. There are few churches in England that are not a hundred years old, and many of the cathedrals are more nearly a thousand years old. Most of the people in England are Episcopa-lians, so most of the churches in England are Episcopal. In fact, the Episcopal Church is called the Church of England.

Two of the greatest universities in the world are in England. They play each other football, but not baseball. Instead of baseball they play a game called cricket, and they have rowing matches. One of these universities is on River Thames where oxen used to wade across or “ford” the river, and so is called Ox-ford; the other university is by the River Cam where a bridge crosses, so this is called Cam-bridge.

Many of the World’s greatest writers whose stories you read and whose poetry you have learned lived in England, and the greatest English writer , William Shakspere, lived there at a place called Stratford-on- Avon.