The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1893-04-15

Softened and Beautified Even In
Age and Decay.
Especial Correspondence of the RECORD
UNION. Copyright. 1881
LONDON, April 8, 1893.
1t is no wonder that the cookies of
Briton's heart, be he Irishman, Scotch
man or Englishman, thrill with fadeless
affection 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 his
youth-tide hours only the fierce and
hurtful stings of penury, there is still I'M
tellable charm in the backward vista
centering in the lowliest British home.
1t is because rural England-and it is
almost equally true of rural Scotland and
1reland-in nearly every square acre is
so endearing in its age, association and
natural winsomeness, that those who
possess it, or those who have left it, and,
for the absence, hold it more intensely
close and precious. will justly brook no
belittlement, any more than you would
let some smart stranger come into your
home and sheer at your sweetest and
most cherished, if simple, belongings
beautiful by effort, hallowed by time and
use, even more tenderly loved for your
own errors and ShortcomingS-wlth
pitching both him and his airs inconti
nently into the highway.
1t is such a beautiful country, such a
wen-kept and delicious old garden, such
smiling land III sunshine and snug and
comfortable one in storm, and, withal,
gives to the stranger within it such a
nf nt lad h
close human companionship and sympa-
thles, that cynic and prig and incapable
OF interest in any land but his own,
though one be, he cannot now and then
repress kindling enthusiasm, be here
and there pricked into secret admiration
IN this place, and that find tender and
associative interest.
In less than three hours journey, on
an English day in May-time, what innu-
merable scenes of interest, of stirring
quality and of restfulness and repose
Hash upon you from your carriage win
dow. Still more gratefully teastful are
Inc things one Will see and feel, as innu
nerable hamlets, steadings and halls are
passed. Glorious old manor houses
flash from parks and demesne forests.
Ihatched roofs of village homes, yellow
with lichen, are varied here and there by
red tlling. Avenues OF ancient elms,
beech and lines, giving tempting vistas
and shades, and as gray and smooth as
some old cathedral floor. Cropped hedges
with trim, tiny fields give place here and
there to downs rolling away in billowy
hills of heather, spangled with the golden
asphode, or wide meadows, and tiny
marshes where flames the yellow mari
gold, or where the forget-me-nots are so
dense and blue that their surface seems
like a breeZe-rippled pool. Hawthorn
lanes are white above and beneath as
banks of driven snow. Great masses of
honeysuckle trail from copse and hedge,
and in, around and above all this May
Tune nature-heaven, thrusheS and black
birds, high above the roaring of your
train, flood all the day with song.
IN the tremendous object lesson and
historic reminder which each tiny bit of
the face OF England affords, there is no
more impressive study than that OF Eng
lish villages and their folk. These vii
lagos are the most delightful of all objects
in every panoramic rural scene. Closer
study rev ealS the countless hidden beau
ties-for even age and decay here possess
a mourntul beauty and charm-to the
artistic and vagrant mind. And their
quaint, quiet folk, of whom 1 shall par
ticularly speak in another article though
regarded as dumb and sodden by many,
still provide one of the most interest
ing sociologic studies to be found in any
land.
Although many characteristics of Eng
fish villages differ in different Shires, or
in different parts of the same shire, they
all leave the same typical picture in the
memory, when considered as a part of
the landscape. 1 never yet came to an
English village, and l have visited hun
dreds on foot, that it had not the same
general massing of picturesque effects as
all others. This, too, whatever its rela-
tive typographical situation. 1t was lust
tho Whafh naGtlad in,
Wharie, Derwent, or lamar vale, dumped
upon breezy southern down, half hid
den in the shadows of a midland hill or
peak, topping along the edge of ragged
chine or nowery burn, or wedged into
the stony face OF some dreary northern
moor.
There it stood, ever distinct and char
acteristic picture in itself. a rift of low
outlying cottages, tiny splatches of white
and gray and red, at either side, became
lost toward the center in luxurious shrub
berry. Then a few gables, quaint and old.
Then another mass OF foliage, denser and
darker OF hue. Then jun bled mass OF
higher gray and red roofs aud outjuttings
of more pretentious structures. And,
finally, the highest mass of foliage, DOM
mated by, perhaps, battlement roof,
above which always rises huge. square
centuries-old tower that tells Of the Eng
lish parish church from Lands End 10
the misty Cheviot Hills.
L sometimes think, wonderful and COM
pact a storehouse OF historic relics of gar
nered art and of splendor in cathedral.
castle, hall and monastic ruin as old
England truly is, that after all the sweet
est part of ones wanderings is expert
enced away from the beaten lines of travel
among these gray, old nests, which the
centuries have softened and beautitied
even in their age and decay.
Come with me, then, vagrantly, into a
few OF these lovely old home-spots OF
rural England. Not far to the north OF
damp and grimy Liverpool is pretty
Ormskirk. Il is half village and halt
town, for the spindles are humming here,
as almost everywhere in Lancashire and
Yorkshire. Two huge white roads lead
ing from green fields, which were i'm
passable MOSES in olden times, rising to
gentle eminence, iutersect the place,
and the verdure growth of four hundred
years almost hides from view the nest
ling ancient homes, the quaint old shops