The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-03

Rut no influence from the new world
 and none of the modern improvements
 that are gradually creeping in can ever
 divest a village like this Of 1t aspect ol
 oldness or of the charm which far stretching traditions give to 1t. We are in that part of England for which the
 Britons and Danes contended and not far from an immense dyke which was | thrown up by the Romans as a defence against the Picts and Scots. The vil- lage church has stood on the same spot eight hundred years and part of the first building still stands. The sur
 rounding grave yard has been buried in over and over again, and there are ghastly proofs that the graveyard formerly exceeded it's present limits. If
 not. why were several skulls turned up when they were excavating for build
 ing purposes in the adjacent school yard? But things like these do not in
 the least distract from the beauty of
 the place. In fact to'think of the gen. erations that have preceded you in these sylvan haunts gives an added | charm to the lazy, droning life of the place. In a certain way you feel that your life is too shut off in so quiet re- treat from the great rushing life of the
 world at large that you yourself are al
 most dead But if this were death how entrancingly comfortable that state
 would be and how beautiful the sur roundings!
 Everywhere the smoothed roads, the trimmest hedges the stateliest trees, c,i- ,,,;tl ;,,fn .tt toe, across fields redolent with the scent of
 ripening grain, vocal with bird songs and cleaning here and there with the English affluence of wild flowers Even the village police station is beauti- full place-at least to look at. Marvel
 lous the passion of these slow blooded
 Anglo Sax xons for decorating gardening! One sees this everywhere at railway stations and one sees it no less at vil- lage police stations. The police sta ticn in this village is a combination af- fair The front room is the magis- trate's court When court is in session the officers wear white gloves and all the business is done on the same high level of decorum. When court is not in session the table of justice is radiant WILL DOlltu liulltS' al liCi be',h iS
 the residence of the district inspector whose dignity and comfort are both greatly enhanced by the certainty that after few more years of not very eX
 acting service he will retire, as his pre-
 decessors have done, and as all police
 men and constables do over here on a
 comfortable pension. Between the court
 and the residential part of this Hall of
 Justice are two cells with walls so
 clean and beds SO inviting and all con-
 venences so perfectly sanitary that
 the wonder is they are so seldom occu-
 pied. But it's the outside rather than
 inside that attracts you, after all. Here
 you find, in front and on either side and
 stretching far into the rear, those charming effects in ornamental shrub
 bery and tasteful flower beds for which
 the mind finds no counterpart save in
 Fairy-land,
 What would be called the village green if it were green and had not a
 more historic name, is called, as If in
 mockery of it's flatness, the Hill. But
 the full name of Stocks Hills, grimly
 suggestive of the time, not so very long
 ago, when scolds and shrewds and
 drunkards and other misdemeanants
 were exposed to public scorn, some of