Show WAKEMANS wanderings LONDON april 17 1893 after all though the antiquarian historic and ana picturesque aesque features of english Mil villages lages provide endless fascination and charm their human entert st has the strongest hold upon the observant mind and sympathetic nature they are by no means alike though universally possessing similar characteristics and very many are strikingly I 1 y typical 1 of t them hem all those most ike luce the english engish villages of literature will be found in in the eastern midland and southern shires from lincoln around to devon and these comprise the far greater number those differing most irom from each other and occasion occasionally all sepa separately irately as well as a whole from at aft others are those of the northwestern shires the northwestern midland shires where industrial development has created a host ot of comparatively modern hamlets the western central shires among the malvern and cotswold Cots wold hills where the antiquity of all villages is very great and those of cornwall where race distinction has left strongly marked peculiarities in ian language aage customs and home and village eifle life among the lowly the peasants of cumberland and westmoreland who are nearly all villagers most of the former being estates state dl man 11 that is owners in fedot fee ot their tiny estates are as a rule house proud in years ear s of wandering among the lowly of european european countries T r have never come upon any rustic folk the exteriors of abor whose se habitations were more picturesque or whose interiors were such shining examples of homely comfort and content there are of course exceptions now and then you will find hamlets like hidden among the fe fells lis between borrowdale and thirl mere where may be seen the sodden sq squalor alor occasionally met among the unfortunate scottish west coast crofters and in the irish west coast fishing villages their houses are dark and ag un unwholesome w the floors uneven the furniture crazy the men clad in ragged fustian and the women in coarse wool and wooden clo clogs s these are sheep herders gerders under a fater later sort of feudalism in every such case the history is their forefathers sold their little estate to encroaching land grabbers and their children are consequently today in a condition of petty serfdom precisely as in in Word time you will find outside the villages cottages the shade of great old byca mores and always a tall fir through which the winds sing when other trees sire are leafless in the rear a little orchard an ample hurbbed herb bed a nean rill or spring spout with its ceaseless wimple a calmly garden comfortable stone out buildings for grain and for winter hous tee ing of the tows cows and tiney but hardy sheep and always the shed f for or the ives hives h of bees which distill from tte the mountain heath the darkest but ever the sweetest honey in the world these village home interiors are no less characteristic the floors are usually of the same huge slates as those covering the roof they are scrubbed and cleaned until they shine like dusky mirrors frequently you will find them particularly near the door and fireplace fire place decorated with white ochre achre and vermilion chalk in figures and scrollwork scroll work embodying strange fancies in rustic art the living room or firehouse fire house as it is called is always very large for a cottage often from eighteen to twenty five feet square low but with the richest of old and polished oaken beams in the ceiling indeed old oak may be found in these village re homes in profusion ro f asio n the long solid table wita with benches benche at its sides where the statesman his filmily family and laborers sit together at meals and of evenings in winter the long settle 11 or two yards long seat at one side bide of the great fireplace fire place and the sconce on the other side under which the nights fuel called an elden is placed the chairs huge and high and requiring t airing a strong arm to move them ae the high narrow sprawling legged bureaus the many iron iron or brass bound chests the beds huge and strong enough to hold bold giants for these Cum brians are often tremendous in stature are all of oak curiously carved and wonderfully polished dished all this is sometimes varied 9 by pieces of mahogany almost as unique as can be found among the peasant homes of brittany from this his large dean firehouse fire house or living room there are in all directions inviting vistas through wide low doors and cosy stone acan antos an tos perhaps each one built in a different century to dinv paned windows splayed like turret windows white with inner curtains and in sum met mer ablaze with outer bud and blossom these villagers rooted to the land which gave them birth not only by the sacred ties of heredity but by the to the them in more priceless heTi heritage Aage of ownership neither emigrate nor flock to the con towns here is rare rural england as it has for centuries been among a type of independent half defiant folk whose simplicity piety hardihood ana and solidarity compel genuine admiration and respect many of the comparatively modern villages of yorkshire lancashire derbyshire and staffordshire the village homes of operatives in mines mills and potteries are far prettier and more comfortable than even many englishmen would have us believe A half dozen different religions fighting tooth and nail for their piety and pence the vague unrest that comes through almost unlimited access to newspapers and books and the changed standards of necessities and luxuries pressing sorely upon the highest limitations of even largely increased wages have given the villagers of this type of hamlets an entirely different mental and material mold I 1 would not say they are happier for the change but their homes food labor wage and environment are as we measure things infinitely superior to those of the same class f from torn a half century to a century ago many of the hamlets are massed a bout about by trees have architecturally beautiful little churches chapels club houses libraries and the neatest of shops nearly all are tidy and clean the potters villages of staffordshire are good illustrations of them all within a five mile radius of hanley burslem and stroke you can find homes of potters nearly all in pretty hamlets or in shady village lanes and villages of long single streets the poorest potter otter of the district lives as snugly as did the master potter manufacturer of forty and fifty years ago his cattafe cottage is is of brick it has haa two stories an and the blessing of perfect drainage on the ground floor are a parlor with a pretty fireplace fire place a large living room provided with a huge grate hobs and jockey bar for swinging pots and kettles and behind thesis a scullery with a fine little garden at the rear the upper floor comprises two large sleeping rooms this gives every family a five roomed completely detached house and garden ordinary workmen earn from twenty five to thirty shillings weekly if there happen to be daughters one may be a pam tress coloring the cheaper wares and earning eight shillings aud and perhaps another burnisher 1 I a earning six shillings per week many farlies thus secure from thirty five to forty shillings gs per week while their rent and rat rates do CIO not exceed five shillings per week for such a home nearly all of these work mens villa village e homes have front area flower plats in in the gardens of all are mazes of flowers and vines and beds of vegetables in summer surn mer every parlor has its solemn voiced grandfathers clock r it also boasts chests of linen drawers of comfortable clothing and many cheap and pretty pieces of furu furniture iture while on the mantle or bureau top is always found some fanciful sketch painting ngor or curious model the result of emulation to win prizes for invention in in new processes or for unique and original designs in in modeling and decoration the murderous truck system is unknown in eng land as it should be in america and every penny due every man is is paid him each saturday noon we are very fond about election time of telling our workmen what lucky dogs they are I 1 wish they truly possessed the home comfort and pleasant denvir environment that english work mens villages almost universally disclose another and most interesting type ot of villages and village life may be found in the region comprised comaris d in southwestern W warwickshire Warwick shire northern Gloucester shire eastern herefordshire Hereford shire and southern worcestershire between the towns ot of stratford on avon hereford and gloucester the antiquity of most of these villages is as great and their characteristics as those of the stone hamlets of cumberland like the latter most are of stone and from to years old here is everything curious and ancient in old balc oak doors and hinges fanciful chimney pieces massive oak lintels linkels lint els I 1 doors and balu balustrades trades mullioned ned windows and paneled rooms when the habitations are not nat of stone they are the still more MOM picturesque ancient tudor half timbered houses these in their gables with crowning pinnacles their odd porches small but massive doors mullioned ned windows and huge chimneys overhanging stories and jumbles of protecting windows are no less quaint and curious than their interiors with their spacious low rooms paneled with oak of ebon blackness often elaborated elaborately carved and orna ornamented merited and with passages nooks niches cupboards and presses bewildering in arrangements and number each stone farmhouse farm house and cotters village home stands in its own orchard brilliant with sprays of pink and white or with balls of russet and gold according to the season chaffinches Chaff inches and robins are among the mosses in all these orchards blackbirds and thrushes everywhere in the thick garden shrubberies shrub eries benes and in the tangled coppices coppicus copp ices and hedge rows the stage coaches are here just as of old so are the carrier the carter the thatcher the tiler the drainer the ploughman the shepherd the common field laborer and even the poacher ah as heedless of reform as cuban guajiros and all with kindly faces and speech betokening sturdy pride in their vacations which were the toil of their fathers before them there is no elbowing no jostling no harrying harlyin or hurrying everybody saunters bozes dozes or labors as though content never paid penalty to want an atmosphere of of unconstrained amplitude broods over all hundreds of the olden english villages are surely here in a region that knows no change unless one has really wandered in rock buttressed old cornwall it is hard to believe that outside the picturesque coastwise fishing hamlets there is such a thing as characteristic village life to the casual observer from the railway train the whole face of the land seems torn and scarred as if by tremendous elemental struggles A myriad hissin hissing huslig fragments of exploded planets hurled in awful upper rain upon its face could have left no more unsightly hurts but it is full of entrancing hidden nooks where sloping from ragged moorlands moor lands are beauteous little valleys with a ample anle farms lessening into tinier checkers of hedge and and lane broidered broi dered fields and thie these into mossy old hamlets where the white wesleyn wesleyan chapel and the norman towered parish church are the only two structures showing through a wealth of trees but where are curious old homes and always a bawling moorland stream turning ur n i n g the gray huge wheel of some trembling 0 old id milf mill here miles perhaps from their gairdner work below grass i in n the mines on the moors live swarthy coden cousin jack with scores of cotter laborers upon the farms where ever these village cottages are their walls are of everlasting stone ered in brilliant cornish creepers and yf roses roses with cement floors and thatched roofs subject to interminable repairs from onslaughts of scores of busy sparrows tiny miners themselves endlessly sinking shafts and drilling cross cuts and levels in the soft and yielding straw there is is one room below sometimes two and a half story garret beneath the thatch there is only a front door A window is is at either side of this and sometimes directly above these tiney panes to light the garret each cottage is is provided at the end or back with an open fireplace fire place in in the centera center a sort of range at one side covered with brass ornaments which the housewife is endlessly polishing oli shing with f growder while at the atger other side is the lung ung coner with heps or upper and vinder tinder doors for storing faggots maggots or furze for fuel the furniture though scant is honest and useful at the fire place alethe are the brandes a triangular iron on legs on which over the coals the kettles boil the circular cak cast iron baker is set and the fish or meat when they can be luckily had are scrolled led or grilled there are perhaps four chairs singularly en enough 0 ugh with solid mahogany frames buethe but the seats areef are of painted pine and are waxed weekly these are for best and all the best for everyday every day use one or two firms or rude benches are provided the single table is ot of pine and unpainted side for daily use and scrubbed daily and a painted side for sunday the table ware is something startling in cheap goods for the gipsy hawkers frequent cornwall and each member of the family is provided with a real chany cup and saucer with a gorgeous gilt ailt band for his class the cornish villager is a generous liver the young folk have an unusual fund of games distinctive of cornwall marriages provide extraordinary festivals the dead are watched from decease to burial and funerals provide subdued diversions with heroic feasts leaping wrestling running cricket and 1 putting the stone are the principal amusements of youths and men in which they excel and their countless endeared hobgoblins hob goblins and bucca boos which wesley and whitefield along with the railways and telegraph were never able to lay draw these sturdy cornish villagers closer together around the flashing village smithy forge the Cornish mans chief elace place of evening resort or within the home ome glow of their blazing ingle noo nooks ks during the long winter nights when the cruel fogs pound in over the moors from the seething channel or the tempests howl across the dreary shuddering moors practically all english village folk are laborers whether operatives shepherds thatchers drainers or corn com mon field laborers just as they have haive been for hundreds of years there may be a publican or innkeeper a shopkeeper who is postmaster or tress a carpenter who is often a painter undertaker verger and gravedigger in in one a baker a tailor a blacksmith and a poacher for the latter fatter is in ever every y hamlet in britain all great oracles in in th their air way but three farlies of quality and I 1 frequently hot that many are known those of the lord of the manor or the squire the rector or the curate and the schoolmaster for the doctor is always summoned from a near city or town english village life is therefore found to lie within a wonderfully close horizon I 1 have been much with these folk in their labor their diversions and their homes after looking at them long and earnestly with my own eyes I 1 have tried to get as nearly as possible into their personal environment and then look out of the windows of their minds and their habitations upon the everyday world about them in this way a good deal that is not hopeless and much that is g ratifying gratifying can be discerned it is certainly ta i aly true that an infinitely higher standard of life and living is is enjoyed than in the good old days whose departure the wise writers so bitterly deplore |