226 THE LIFE OF THE FIELDS. 



the publisher, as much as if the publisher spoke to 

 him across the breakfast table. 



But the villager has never heard the publisher's 

 name ; the villager never sees a literary review ; he 

 has never heard, or, if so, so casually as not to 

 remember, the name of any literary paper describing 

 books. When he gets hold of a London paper, the 

 parts which attract him are certainly not the adver- 

 tisements ; if he sees a book advertised there, it is by 

 chance. Besides which, the advertisements in London 

 papers are, from necessity of cost, only useful to those 

 who frequently purchase books or have some reason 

 for keeping an eye on those that appear. There are 

 thousands of books on publishers' shelves which have 

 been advertised, of course, but are not now ever put in 

 the papers. So that when the villager gets a London 

 paper, as he does now much more frequently, the ad- 

 vertisements, if he sees them, are not designed for his 

 eye and do not attract him. He never sees a gaudy 

 poster stuck on the side of the bam ; there are no glazed 

 frames with advertisements in the sheds or hung on the 

 trees ; the ricks are not covered, like the walls of 

 the London railway stations, with book advertise- 

 ments, nor are they conspicuous on the waggons as 

 they are on the omnibuses. When he walks down the 

 village there are no broad windows piled with books 

 higher than his head — books with the backs towards 

 him, books with the ornamented cover towards him, 

 books temptingly open at an illustration : nothing of 

 the sort. There is not a book to be seen. Some few 

 books are advertised in the local press and receive 

 notices — only a few, and these generally of a class too 



