Lest anyone should think I am an uncritical admirer of the Lord Protector,

let the following be noted: I come from a sleepy market town named

Northampton, in the East Midlands of England. Northampton has long been a

center of boot- and shoe-making. We made all the boots for Cromwell’s New

Model Army. He never paid us. People in Northampton still grumble about

this.