Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1893-04-29

| by trees. have enthusiastically beautiful LII
tie churches, chspels, club. houses, libra
| ries and the nestest of shops. Nearly all
are tidy and clean. The peters villsges
of Staffordshire are good illustrations of
them all. Within q fve-mils radius Of
Hanley, Burslem and Stoke you can find
| ten Thousand homes of potters, resrly an
In pretty hamlets or In shady village lanes,
and villages of long, single streets. The
poorest potter of the district lives as snug
" as did the master-potter manufsotursr
of forty and fifty years ago.
His cottage Is of brick. 1t has two sto-
ries, and the blessing Of perfect drainage.
On the ground floor are q psrlor with n
petty fireplace, large hving-room provi-
ded with huge gate, hobs and 'jockey-
bar" for swinging pots and kettles; and
behind this is o scullery, with fine little
garden at the rear. The upper floor COM
prises two large sleeping-rooms.
This gives every family fve-roomed,
completely detached house and garden.
Ordinary workmen earn from twenty FIVE
to thirty shillings weekly. II there hap
pen to be daughters one may be q paint
ress," coloring the cheaper wares and earn
ing eight shillings, and perhaps another q
"burnisher," earning ak shillings per
week. Many families thus secure from
thirty five to forty shillings per week,
while their rent and rates do not exceed
Eve shillings per week for such home.
Nearly all of these workmen's village
homes have front-srea hower-plats. In the
gardens of all are mszes of flowers snd
vines and beds of vegetables In summer
Every parlor has its solemn-voiced grand
fathers clock" 1t also boasts chests of
linen, drawers of comfortable clothing,
and many cheap and pretty pieces of fur
niture; while on the mantle or bureau top
is always found some fsnciful sketch,
painting or curious model, the result of
emulation to win prizes for invention In
new processes, or for unique and origi-
nal designs in modelling and decoration.
The murderous truck" system ia un-
known in England, as 1t should be in
America; and every penny due every man
is paid him each Saturday noon. We are
very fond, about eleoriou-time, of telling
our werkmen what lucky dogs they are
I wish they truly possessed the home COM
fort and pleasant environment that Eng
lish workmen's villages slmost universal
ly disclose.
Another aud most interesting typs of
villages and village life may be found in
the region comprised in southwestern
Wsrwickshirs, northern Gloucestershire,
eastern Herefordshire and southern
Worcestershire, bstween the towns of
Strstford- on-Avon, Hereford, Worcester
and Gloucester. The antiquity of most
of theso villages is as great and their
characteristics as distinctive ss those of
the stone hsmlets of Cumberland. Like
the latter most are of stone and from
three to five hundred years old. Here is
everything curious and ancient in old oak
doors and hinges, fanciful chimney pieces,
massive oak lintels, doors and balus-
wiz nd I'D
rooms. When the habltations are not of
stone they are the still more picturesque
ancient Tudor half timbsred houses.
These In their gables with crowning pin
nscles, their odd porches, small but mae
sivs doors, mullioned windows and huge
ohimneys, oyerhsnging stories and jum
bles of projecting windows. are no less
quaint and curious than their interiors,
with their spacious, lOE-ceiiingsd rooms
psneled with oak of ebon blEckness, often
elaborately carved and ornsmented, and
with passages, nooks, inches, eupboards
and presses. bewildering in arrangement
and numbsr.
Each stone farmhouse and cOiter's VII |
lsge home stands in Its own orchard, bril- |
liant with sprays of pink and white, or |
with balls of russett and gold, according |
to the season. Chafinches and robins are |
among the moses in all these Orchards;
black birds and thrushes everywhere in the |
thick garden strawberries and in the tan
gled coppices and hedgsrows- The stage
coaches are here Just as of old. So are the
carrier, the carter, the thatcher, the tiler,
the drainer, the ploughmsn, the shepherd,
the common field lAborer, and even the
poscher; all as heedlsss of reform as Gu
ban guailros, and all with kindly faces and |
speech betokening sturdy pride In their |
vocstions which were the toll of their
fathers before them. There is no elbow
ing, no jostling, no harrying or hurryiDg.
Everybody ssunters, dozes or labors as
though content never paid penalty to want.
An atmosphere of unconstrained amph-
tude broOds over all. Hundreds of the
olden English villages are surely here In
region that knows no change.
Unless one has really wandered In rock
buttressed old Cornwall Ii Is hard to be-
lieve that outside the picturesque coast
wise fishing hamlets there Is such q thing
as characteristic village life To the cAsu-
al observer from the railway train, the
whole face of the land seems torn and
Scared as If by tremendous elemental
struggles. A myriad hissing fragments of
exploded planets, hurled in awful upper
rain upon it's face could have left no more
unsightly hurts. But IL is full of entran-
cling hidden hooks, where, sloping from
ragged moorlsnds are besuteous little val
leys with ample farms, lesssnipg into tin
Ter checkers of hedge and lsne-broidered
fields, and these into mossy old hsmlets,
where the white Wesleyan chapel and the
Norman lowered parish church are the
only two structures showing through 9
wealth of trees; but where are curious old
homes. and always a bawliDg moorland
steam turning the gray, huge wheel of
some trembling old mill.
Here, miles perhaps from their "psird- |
ner" work "below grass" in the mines on |
the moors, live swsrthy "Coden (cousin) |
Jack" with scores of cotter lsborers upon |
the farms. Wherever these village cot |
stone, embowered in brilliant Cornish |
creepers and roses, with cement foors,
and thstched roofs subject to internins-
bic repairs from onslaughts of scores of
busy spsrrows, tiny miners themselves,
endlessly sinking shafts and drilling
"cross-cuts" and "levels" In the soft and
yielding straw. There is one room below;
sometimes two; and q hslf-story garret
beneath the thatch. There is only front
door. A window is at either side of this,
and sometimes directly above these, tiny
psnes to light the gsrret. Each cottage Ia
provided at the end or back with sn open
fireplace in the center; sort of range at
one side, covered with brass ornaments
which the housewife is endlessly polishing
with growder; while 81 the other side Ia
the ''ungconsr" with "heps" or upper and
under doors, for storing taggots or furze
for fuel.
The furniture though scant is honest
and useful. At the fireplace are the
'brandes," a triangular iron on legs on
which, over the Goals. the kettles boil, the
circular cast-iron "bzksr" Is set, and the
fish or meat, when they can be luckily
had, are "scrowled" or grilled. There are
perhaps four chairs, singularly enough
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