The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-04-16
ENGLISH VILLAGE FOLK.
Wakeman Wanders Among the
Towns and Studies the Peo-
pie and Ways.
Historic Reminders Which Each
Tiny Bit of Old highlands
Faca Affords.
Nests Which tho Centuries Have
Softened and Bcaut!fied.

LONDON. April a.~-It ia no wonder TINT
the cookies of a Briton's heart. be he Irish
man, Scotohman or Englishmnn. thrill with
fadeless affection as he recalls. In nny for
eign land, the immediate environment OF
the home-spot that give him birth. We're
he but cottoi's child, and knew in his youth
tide hours only the fierce and hu'tful stinga
of penuiy thei Q 10 still an unreliable charm
In the backward vista centering in the lowli-
est British home.
1t is because rural England-and u Is al
most equally true of rutal Scotland aud
lreland-in nearly every square &c Q is SO
endea' ing in its ago. association and natural
winsomeness, that those who possess ii. and
those who have left it and. for tho absence,
hold il more intensely close and precious,
will justly brook no be.ittle meut; any more
than you would let some smart stranger
come into your homo and sneer at your
sweetest and most cherished, If simple. be-
Observation-Disclosures by effort. hallowed by
tim and USE, even moro tenderlv loved for
your own eftors and neutrality-suspicious.
pitching both him and his alrs inoontinently
into tho highway. q
1t is such n beautiful country; such a
we'll kept mi delicious old gardens; such u
smiling land in sunshine and song and COM
Portable one in storm: and withal gives to
the stranger within IL such n sense of con-
slant interest, coupled with close human
companionship md sylnpathies, that cynic
and prig and inc pable of interest in any
land but his own. though one be, he cannot
now and then repress a kindilne enthusi-
asm, DO here and there pricked into secret
admiration, or in this place and that find q
tender and associative interest.
lu less than q threo hours Journey. on An
English day in May time. what innnmey able
scenes of interest, Of stir ing quality and
of rcstfu,ness and reposs flash u on you
from your car inQe window! still more
gratefully feastful are the things one will
SEQ and feel, as innumerab.e hamIe OTIS.
standings and balls nre passed. Glorious
OLD manor houses flash f ON parks and de-
mense forests. Thatched roofs of village
homes. yellow with !ichen. ere varied here
and there by red tiling. Avenues of AN.
vistaa above broad roads. tfsselated with
lights and shades. and az gray and smooth
rs some old cathedral floor. Cropped
hedges with trim, tiny zelda give place
hero and there to downs. rolling away in
billowy hills Of heather, spnngled with the
golden asphodel. o. wide meadows and tiny
marshes whore famea ths yellow mArigold,
or where the forget me-no are so dense
and blue that their surface seems like q
breeze-rippled pool. Hawthorn lanes arc
WuIto dpoVe anu DeNCaLN M BNtlRB Oh driven
snow. Great masses of honeysuck!e trail
from copse and hedge; and in, around and
above all this May-time nnture-heaven,
thrushes md blackbirds. high above the
roaring OF your t:ain, flood all the dny with
song.
In the tremendous object lesson and his
toric reminder which each tiny bit OF the
face OF England affords, thsre iseno more
impressive study than that of English viii
lagos md their folk. These villages are
the most delightful OF all objects in every
veuls countess hidden beauties-for oven
age and decay here possess a mournful
beauty and chnrm-to the artistic and
vsgrant mind. And their quaint, quiet
folk, Of whom l shall particularly speak in
another article. though regarded as dumb
and Golden by many. still provide one of
the most interesting sociolo2!o studies to
be found in any land.
Although many characteristics of English
villages diffor in different shires, or in diff
ferent parts of the same shire, they all leave
tho same typical %licture in the memory.
when considered as q part of the landscape.
l never yet calne to an English village, and
! have visited hund eds on foot, that it had
not the came general massing of picturesque
effects ns all others. This, too, whatever
Its relative topog' aphichl situation. II was
gust the same whether negtle1 in an Avon,
Wharfe, Derwent. o: lamar vale; ciumpod
nron a breezy southern down; half hidden
in the shadows of u midland hill or peak:
topping along the edcc of ragged chine or
t1owery burn; or wedged into the stony face
of soMe drear; northern moor.
There it stood, ever q distinct and char
actaiistic picture in itself. A rift of low
OUTLYING cottages. tiny splatohes of white
and gray and red, at either side, because
lost towards tho center in luxurious shrub
berry. Then n few gables, quaint and old.
Then another mass OF foliage, denser and of
ffnriCnr hna Ihan n III, r, h106 m n ~ l,-In,
gray and rcd roofs and outiuttings OF
moro psctantious at uctu es. And finally,
the highest mass of foliage, dominated By
pr rhaps a battlemented roof, above which
slways rises a huge, square centuries-old
tower that tells of tho English parish
church from Lands Fad to the misty
Cheviot Hills.
l sometimes think, wonderful and COM
act n sto: ehouso of historic relics, of gar
nered art and of epiendor in cnthedral,
castle, hnll and monastic ruin. as old Eng
land uiy is. that inter MI the sweetest
part of ones wandetings il experienced
Rway from the beaten lines of travel nmong
these gray old nests. which the centuries
nave softened and beRnti.ea even in their
age and decay.
Como with rae then. vagtantly. into n few
Of these lovely old h~oine.snots of rural
Ergland. Not fer to tho norti, OF damp
and grlmy Liverpool is pretty Ormskirk.
It IS half villngo and half town, for the
ipindles are humminG her. ia almost every
where i'll Lancashire and 70 kshire.
Two huge, white roads LEADING
rem green folds. which vere i'm
;hsshble moses in o!den times, RIG
nl 10 n gentle eminence intersect tho place.
Rnd the verdure growth of four hundred
Years almost hides from view tho nesting.
Encient homes, tho quaint old shops. the
leepy, iestful inns. and the historic church
tself.
The old church looming above the red
iles of the cottage ioofs 10 curiously sur
mounted by sepa ate tower and steople: the
pile SO grny, mellow and ivy-massed as to
nvoluntnri!y suggest q gigantic tree lopped
III in its lower trunk, where tho huge bat
lemented tower stops, out of w!loge edge
There the steeple rises. has sprouted a sec
nd slender tree. The tradition goes that
wo cnpricious maiden sisters, DESTROYS
t raising some sacred memorial.
greed upon erecting uron Ormskirk a
over and steolle 10. yet. disagreeinc as to
hitting and connecting their work, thew
nally expended all tleir wealth and ener-
les upon both. each independent of tho
Their. Tho earliest OF the now Derbys
nd s%tanleys are buried het e. NOISY, Itch.
ned, slumbetous, grave, tho eniirs place ia
wondrous picture of tender repose, una ia
ut ono of the scores OF winsome Lancashire
fllngss. blending. low.lying and hushed, in
be lensant landscape between the thun-
erous towns of mills.
What precious old bits of gray nnd, sun
line and green are the half deserted viii
(gcs of Cockermouth and Hnwksheah url
ere in the English lnko region. the former
, Cumberland, and the latter just inside
AL .I.c. Ah.A