260 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



with a lack of practical knowledge. It was, 

 I believe, in 1905 that he one day strolled 

 into an auction market in London and made 

 a bid for a farm of 620 acres on the shores 

 of the Blackwater. He had never seen the 

 land ; nevertheless it immediately became his 

 property. 



I remember the land before that date. I 

 remember its Dutch landscape with here and 

 there a group of trees or a stunted, weather- 

 beaten hedge, and nothing but these, or the 

 sails of a picturesque windmill to intercept 

 the unbroken view across the glimmering 

 Blackwater. 



To the credit of Mr. Fels be it said, across 

 this very expanse the eye now lights upon the 

 top of brown sails of barges idly flapping in the 

 wind, barges which yearly bring from London 

 hundreds of tons of stable manure. We see 

 the glittering whitewashed cottages roofed 

 with red tiles built in a semicircular sweep 

 for the small holders. We see too the belfry 

 of the new open-air school, and its adjoining 

 club and library, which, with the newly- 

 erected CO - operative stores, make up the 

 village street. 



The small holdings, of which there are 



