Busy manufacturing towns are often in districts that have little to offer to the private resident un-connected with trade. Rushden has developed from a village into a town within the memory of many still living in it; and round it still lie villages untouched by the growth of industrialism.
The ancient and historic borough of Higham Ferrers joins the northern boundary of the parish and brings to the mind the contrast between the England of Henry V. with its dominant prelate, Henry Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury, and our own time, dominated by other lords and other forces. In Higham Ferrers the school that he founded, a graceful fifteenth-century building, is well worth a visit. It stands in a churchyard surrounded by old houses that only lack size to fit them for the habitation of canons and a dean. There is a Bede House and an ancient vicarage, a subtile architectural composition completed by a tower and a spire beloved by the great leaders of the Gothic revival that followed on the romantic movement of the early part of the nineteenth century. The fine gateway of the old college of priests stands in the High Street of the same town and in what is called the Castle Field, is the old moat connected with the Castle of the Dukes of Lancaster.
At the little village of Wymington, which lies a mile or two to the south-west of Rushden, is one of those rare mediaeval churches built to a complete and perfect design and it has happily survived almost untouched by the hand of the restorer. In it is a magnificent brass, and more interesting still, oak benches black and shining with age, at the end of which are draw-out ends for the overflow of the congregation.
There are fine churches at Newton Bromshold, Yelden and Podington—all within easy walking distance. The country round is pleasantly wooded and well watered.
Castle Ashby, a seat of the Marquess of Northampton, is within a driving distance, and a description of it is given in the "Borough" Guide to Northampton.
Motorists will find excellent accommodation at the hotels and other establishments in the town. They will find roads in fine order and the county police by no means anxious to stretch antiquated laws to the inconvenience of any one who is willing, as most motorists now are, to drive with due regard to the interests of other users of the roads.
No one can know England who does not know the Midlands thoroughly, and the country lying round Rushden is as satisfying as any one who can appreciate the quiet beauty of the real English landscape can desire.
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