A long funeral cortege attended the remains of the deceased from Cambridge to their last resting place in the little village churchyard of Babraham.  Beside friends from neighboring villages, the First Cambridgeshire Mounted Rifle Corps joined the procession, together with a large number of the county police force.  His body was laid down to its last, long rest beside that of his wife, who preceded him to the tomb only by a few days.  Though Stratford-upon-Avon, and Dryburgh Abbey may attract more American travellers to their shrines, I am sure many of them, with due perception of moral worth, will visit Babraham, and hold it in reverent estimation as the home of one of the world’s best worthies, who left on it a biograph which shall have a place among the human-life-scapes which the Saviour of mankind shall hang up in the inner temple of His Father’s glory, as the most precious tokens and trophies of the earth, on which He shared the tearful experiences of humanity, and bore back to His throne all the touching memories of its weaknesses, griefs, and sorrows.

A movement is now on foot to erect a suitable monument to his memory.  It may indicate the public estimation in which his life and labors are held that, already, about 10,000 pounds have been subscribed towards this testimonial to his worth.  The monument, doubtless, will be placed in the great Agricultural Hall, which he did so much to found.  His name will wear down to coming generations the crystal roofage of that magnificent edifice as a fitting crown of honor.

CHAPTER VIII.

THRESHING MACHINE—­FLOWER SHOW—­THE HOLLYHOCK AND ITS SUGGESTIONS—­ THE LAW OF CO-OPERATIVE ACTIVITIES IN VEGETABLE, ANIMAL, MENTAL, AND MORAL LIFE.

     “In all places, then, and in all seasons,
      Flowers expand their light and soul-like wings,
      Teaching us, by most persuasive reasons,
      How akin they are to human things.”—­LONGFELLOW.

My stay at Babraham was short.  It was like a visit to the grave of one of those English worthies whose lives and labors are so well known and appreciated in America.  All the external features of the establishment were there unchanged.  The large and substantial mansion, with its hall and parlor walls hung with the mementoes of the genius and success that had made it so celebrated; the barns and housings for the great herds and flocks which had been dispersed over the world; the very pens still standing in which they had been folded in for the auctioneer’s hammer; all these arrangements and aspects remained as they were when Jonas Webb left his home to return no more.  But all those beautiful and happy families of animal life, which he reared to such perfection, were scattered on the wings of wind and steam to the uttermost and most opposite parts of the earth.