Near Canterbury in England there is a title brush grown field. The Vagabond has been led to believe that it is from this small plot of ground that the English derive their term "tripper" for the more conventionally known traveller," or more simply "American." In that field buried beneath grass that has not felt the mower's scythe for years and overgrown with moss which foxes scuffle in wild fear there lies a little marble slab. As men walk over this buried stone they trip. If, after recovering balance, the traveller stoops to examine, he will find that in this marble there are hollows perhaps two inches deep.

Seven hundred odd years ago the Archbishop of Canterbury stood before the candies of an altar surrounded by a handful of gibbering, frightened monks. Within the great cathedral there was the silence of men in prayer; without the sound of strife and the muffled call of "Way for the King's men." With a sharp sound the doors swung back and men spilled through on to the stone floor. The monks gave a frightened glance, and beseeching their master to follow ran hastily away. The Archbishop went forward to meet the knights alone, accompanied by one faithful. "Where is Thomas a Becket, traitor to King?" and he answered, "Here is the Archbishop of Canterbury." After a flurry of arms they knocked his mitre to the ground and Becket crushed it as his body fell. In a moment the great cathedral was empty, and as the candles guttered in the draft there was a cry of "King's men," down a side street.

They buried him near Canterbury in a stone chapel. And before his grave they put a little marble slab that men who past that way might worship on their knees. The stone chapel has sunk beneath the weight of ages, but out in a little field there is a grass grown marble slab with hollows where rain water lodges and where knees have been.

Today at two Mr. Hersey will lecture on Dickens and his travels along a well known route from London into Canterbury. It is a lecture that is as good as all of Mr. Hersey's and the Vagabond from the depths of romantic admiration will say no more.