228 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



of manual labour, and a substitute for many 

 of the refinements of civilised indolence," 

 wrote a reviewer when noticing my book, 

 A Few AcTes and a Cottage. In return for 

 the practical knowledge which the countryman 

 gives to the townsman on the cultivation 

 of the soil, the town craftsman gives to the 

 countryman a glimpse of artistic creation 

 which could be moulded of the clay under their 

 feet and carved from the wood in the forests. 

 The value, too, of a new social life infused 

 into the dry bones of decaying villages like 

 Campden, where high thinking has long been 

 divorced from simple living, can hardly be 

 too highly placed. 



Not long after the settlement of these 

 town craftsmen in this mediaeval village, left 

 high and dry, and stranded among the Cots- 

 wold Hills since the industrial revolution, 

 technical schools, art classes, social clubs, 

 swimming-clubs (which followed the making 

 of a swimming-pond) were formed in rapid suc- 

 cession, and even Hodge, who had almost lost 

 hope on his 12s. a week, began to take heart 

 of grace. The craftsmen, unable to cultivate 

 the whole of their 77 acres themselves, invited 

 Hodge to come and take a hand. 



