midnight
The tea , when , after much delay , it arrived , was delicious . The Pelican was a farm as well as an inn , and the rosy-faced servant girl carried in cream , fresh butter , and red-currant jam to the coffee-room . She apologized for the absence of cake , but it was an omission that nobody minded . Upland air gives good appetites , and , though Miss Strong reminded her flock that this was only a meal by the way , and that supper was ordered for them at Dropwick , they set to work as if they would taste nothing more till midnight . There was something so delightfully fresh and out of the common in having tea at a wayside inn ; they felt true pilgrims of the road , and civilization and school seemed to have faded into a far background . The love of travel is in the blood of both Celt and Anglo-Saxon ; our forefathers visited shrines for the joy of the journey as well as for religious motives , and maybe our Bronze Age ancestors , who flocked to the great Sun Festivals at Stonehenge or Avebury Circles , derived pleasure from the change of scene as well as a blessing from the Druids . The Romans , those great pioneers of travel , had opened out the district eighteen centuries ago , and laid a straight , paved road from Wendcester to Pursborough ; the remains of their fortified camps and of their villas were still left to mark their era .