THE PEIDE OF OUE 

 VILLAGE. 



There is between the hills in a south-eastern English county 

 one of the prettiest villages in England. On one side for a 

 distance of several miles there is a line of well-wooded 

 heights, and on the other side some picturesque down- 

 country. Through the valley runs a river, and on the ris- 

 ing knoll stands a village church just above the bridge, over 

 the stream, and near the church are the great house and 

 deer park. It is a very little village, containing some three 

 hundred inhabitants, and was, and probably now is, a very 

 primitive place in its way. There was no public-house or 

 beershop in that village ; the whole jDlace, barring the 

 vicarage, belonged to the squire, who, when a railway first 

 made its appearance, bargained that no station should be 

 placed anpvhere nearer than two miles and a half, and who 

 obstinately refused to every builder who applied for a plot 

 of land the slightest concession to erect any house upon his 

 estate. There were no poor to speak of, and as every 

 labourer was employed, we had no poachers, and so kept 

 the even tenor of our way, content with one service 

 on the Sunday morning or afternoon alternately, for 

 our spirtual wants. We were orthodox withal, for on feasts 

 52 



