Not even hurtling through the countryside at the thrilling speed of thirty-five miles per hour aboard the new railway was doing anything to improve his mood. Dash it all, it was summer—time for his long holiday from Eton. By rights he ought to be looking forward to endless lazy weeks fishing in Papa’s trout stream and reading Captain Marryat and Walter Scott in the shade of the Folly…but no. No tales of shipboard adventure or derring-do on the Scottish moors for him. He scowled at the carpetbag at his feet, where A Brief History of Judicial Reform in England 1066-1189 seemed to scowl back at him from its open top. Since when was a six hundred and thirty-two page book (including index—he had to admit that, in fairness) considered brief? Keeping company with it were History and Policy of the Norman and Angevin Kings (three hundred and twenty three pages) Henry I and the Charter of Liberties (four hundred and forty seven pages) and England in the Time of Henry Beauclerk and Henry Fitz-Empress (five hundred and six pages).
