Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-04-27

Special Corrospondenceot Gazette and journal
LONDON, April 13.--In my preceding
article on English villages and their
folk, gave some account OF seven Eng
lish villages, ami these in merest out
line. Seven hundred is truly nearer the
number have personally visited. Each
one could furnish through leisnrely
study, for brush or pen, abundant ma
terial for Il winsome volume.
Some writers would have us believe
that English villages were things Of the
past; that rural England had completely
gone to decay; that the smoke Of factory
stacks hung like pail over the remains
Of all that is mellow and old and good;
that the thunders Of the mills had
drowned all the dear old country sounds
that commercial England with hard and
cruel hand had eflacGd almost the last
vestige Of the erst sweet and charming
cOuntrysdes; and that brick and iron,
stone and steel, coal and Brumlnagem,
varied now and then by nobleman's
demesne or gentleman's seat, were the
characteristic features Of an English
landscape.
AS goolly proportion Of English as
American people have come to accept
this as true. But it is astonndlngly
false, as any one who will really saun-
ter, not rush, about England may know
Books are largely responsible for this
English fiction, like American fiction, Of
from half century to a century ago
was replete with pictures Of village life
and character. When Charlotte Bruntc
laid down her pen, and the labor of
George Ellot--who was to tho early
Victorian age, at least in degree, what
Shakespeare was to the Eiizabethan-
was done, ;nastership in this school of
delineation seemed to cease.
Neither America nor England has
since produced a lasting work of fiction
upon rural scenes and loWly folk,
Novelists have wallowHd in altruism,
psychological phenomena, subtletiGs of
crime and its detection, hideous salaci-
business, positive and comparative re-
ligion, the herocs Of agnosticlsm ard
intdelity and in the shredded and be
draggled warp and wool of ultra intense
metropolitan life. So those who rely on
intelligent fiction to reflect reality, have
felt that the English village and its folk
had surely passed away.
Again, the great world of activities
has come constantly to intelligent atten
ton, through the press, the reviews anC
through statistical volumes, largely t
the exclusion of the great underlying
world of fact and sentiment. In America
the stupenQous affairs and progress o
our great cities have almost obiteratet
the memory of some nf the sweetest OH
hooks in all the world the historic an(
beautiful hamlets Of New" England, 0
the eastern and even of the southern
and middle states. Yet they are all jus
as they once were, prettier and tenderc
for their pensiveness and increasing ngt
Here, similarly, everything is London
Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester, Liver
pool, Hull, and that host of PRACTICAL.
new manufacturing towns and cities o
Yorkshire and Lancashire.
The American commercial mind an
the English commercial mind hay
heard for quarter OF century q
nadght else than their ingots and spin
dies, pottery and looms, fabrics an
ships, lOck-outs and walk outs, deprei
SION and expansion and their tremer
doHs trade superlatives of every har
and harassing description.
But the material and literary fact sti
remains thatall the thousands Of ancint
English villages and with not ha
hundred exceptions, are here just 1
they We're at the beginning of tic Gel
fury, aud Just as we have pored ovt
them in the best old works Of Englis
fiction. Not only this, but hundreds
modern villages with winsomc oldG
architecture i'll the habilament Of Eliz
bethan and even earlier Tudor time
enriched with luxurious parking ard il
telligent Horticulture, and windows fillt
with ruddy English faces, have bee
added to the mOssier olden stock.
Even in the congested districts
Lancashire, Yorkshire, northern Wa
wickshire, 5tailorshire and Shropshir
not an ancient village has passed fro
sight, save where town or city h
grown within and around III and ,whC
factory towns are 50 thick that clUste
OF chimney-stacks crowd every acre
the horizon like giant spears above son
mighty encrcing camp, there betwe,
still stand the ancient hamlels, mo
witching for the grlmy fellowship
trade; an endless solace to eye and hea
of those who ceaselcsS toll.
Therefore when the lively Amcrici
who does England i'll a week tells
that the rural England Of literature
Hyde Park orator, railway statl
porter or travelling salesman has tC
him, but still something which he dt
not know; aud when the London Eiteru
dilettante falls upon and disposes
rural England in single breezy mas
zine article or smart review, he comm
for a needed stipend Of ten or twel
pounds little short of literary crime.
a, nd hqtf ct al Ia
who love the truly beautiful and "
somely picturesque in any land, witht
seeking QuiXotiC quests among politi
and social problems, should certain
pass at least ono summcramon lSngl
villages. Hundreds can be found O.
along the lines of railway. Leav
these at any station, by coach, by IT.
upon bicycle, Or more advantageou
and fuller Of citation than all, on "
own good legs, every fine old he'd
bordered highway will furnish you
astounding revelation in every Ii
days drive OF walk.
What wondrous iourneyings into
past are thus afforded. What splen
pages Of history are thus rcopened--
il has been in and about English villa
rather than in towns that English
tory has been made. What chullen
are prompted to the great and the
mortal to come from their wraithla
and walk beside you where they o
dwelt. And how you find that all
knew u books has inexprcssibly lac
in the true color and feeling until
thus we'd presence ard actuulity Y
the toneless tale of words
The wealth OF number Of these Of
villages in Kent alone would COMO