Morning journal and courier., 1893-04-15
wAKEMAN,s wANDERINGs.

wAKEMAN,S wANDERINGS.
 English Villages and Their Folk
 Tho Tremendous object Lesson and
 Historic Reminders Which Each
 Tiny Bit of old England's Face Af-
 fords-Panoramic sweeps of Gray
 old Nests Which the Centuries
 Have Softened and Beautihed Even
 in Age and Decay.
 LONDON, April 8. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 It is no wonder that the cookies of Briton's heart, be he Irishman, Scotchmsn or Euglishman, thrill with fadeless affec- tion as he recalls, In any foreign land, the immediate environment of the home-spot that gave him birth. Were he but cotter's child, and knew in bis youth-tide hours only the fierce and hurtful stings of penu- ", there Is still unreliable charm in the backward vieta centering in the lowliest British home.
 It is because rural Englsnd-and 1t Is almost equally true of rural Scotland and Ireland-in nearly every square acre is 50 endearing In It's age, association and natu- ral winsomeness, that those who possess 1t, or those who have left 1t and, for the absence, hold 1t more intensely close and precious, will justly brook no belittle- ment; any more than you would let some smart stranger come into your home and sheer at your sweetest and most cherished, if simple, belongings-beauti6ed by eff fort, hallowed by time and use, even more tendsrly loved for your own errors and ortcomings-without pitching both him and his airs iuoontinently into the high way.
 ! we'll kept and delicious old garden; such @ smiling land in sunshine and snug and | comfortable one in storm; and withal gives to the stranger within 1t such a eenss of constant interest, coupled with close human companionship and sympathies; that oynic and prig and incapable of in- terest in any land but hie own, though one be, he cannot now and then rep-ess 6 kindly enthusiasm, be here and there pricked into secret admiration, In thii place and that find tender aud associative interest.
 In less than three hours journey, or an English day in May-time, what innu
 merabls scenes of interest, of stirring quality and of restfulness and repose Aasl
 upon you from your carriage window
 Still more gratefully feastful are the thing
 one will zee and feel, as innumerable ham
 lets, stesdings and halls are passed. Glo
 rious old manor houses flash from park ThQtahAI rn0fa n
 village homes, yellow with lichen, are va
 ried here and there by red tiling. Avenue
 of ancient elms, beech and Times giv tempting vistas above broad roads, tessels
 tod with lights and shades, and as gra,
 and smooth aa some old cathedral floor Cropped hedges with trim, tiny fields giv
 place here and there to downs, rollinl
 away in billowy bills of heather, spanglet
 with the golden asphodel, or wide mead
 ows and tiny marshes where flames tn
 yellow marigold. or where the forget me
 nots are so dense and blue that their sur
 face seems like 6 breeze-rippled pool
 Hawthorn lanes are white above and be
 meath as banks of driven snow. Grea masses of honeysuckle trail from cops 1 and hedge; and in, around and above al
 this May-tims nature-heaven, thrushes ant
 blackbirds, high above tho roaring of you train, flood all the day with song.
 ? In the tremendous object lesson and his torio reminder which each tiny bit of tn face of England affords, there is 6 n
 more impressive study than that of Eng fish villages and their folk. These vil , lages are the most delightful of all ob , ject in every panoramic rural scene Closer study reveals countless hiddel , beautiee-for even age and decay here pos , l sess mournful beauty and charm-to tn ! artistic and vagrant mind. And thei
 quaint, quiet folk, of whom I shall par tieularly ST oak in another article, thoug f regarded as dumb and sodden by many , still provide one of the most interestin
 sociologic studies to be found in any land [ Although many characteristics of Eng ' different parts of the same shire, they al ! leave the same typical picture in the mem . ory, when considered as part of the land scape. I never yet came to an Englis
 village, and I have visited hundreds O 2 foot, that 1t had not the same generf ii massing of picturesque effects as ell oth Q CTS. This, too, whatever Its relative topc f graphical situation. It was just the sam n whether nestled in an Avon, Wharfe, Del . went or Tamar vale; clumped upon d breezy southern down; half hidden in th a shadows of midland hill or peak; toI a bling along the edge of ragged chine c a fowery burn; or wedged into the ston
 face of some dreary northern moor.
 There is stood, ever @ distinct and cha
 acteristio picture In itself. A rift of 10
 outlying cottages, tiny splatches of whi
 and gray and red, at either side, beoan E. lost towards the center in luxurious shrul b bery. Then few gables, quaint and ol,
 Then another mass of foliage, denser ar 1t of darker hue. Then jumbled mass o higher gray and red, roofs and outjuttinl
 of more pretentious structures. An ,e finally the highest mass of foliage, dom W mated by perhaps a battlemented roo # above which always rises huge, squar
 centuries old tower that tells of the En :, Iish parish church, from Lands End .- !. the misty Cheviot Hills.
 sa I sometimes think, wonderful and col pact storehouse of historic relics, of gs
 nersd art and of splerdor in cathsdr fs castle, hall and monastic ruin, as old Er D. land truly is, that after all the sweste y part of one's wanderings Is experisne 1e away from the beaten lines of travel amo
 these gray old nests, which the centur t. have softened and beauti6sd even ia tn age and decay.
 ,y Come with me then. Ysgrsntly, int